Truth and reconciliation
by htffan951
Summary: The truth is hard to understand and can be complicated from time to time, but when the truth means life or death how far would one go to find it?
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone. This is very important. this first chapter will be similer to the first chapter of Will There Be Light At the End of the Tunnel. I would also like to give a** **very special to my co-author Binary10011. He is a fantastic writer. **

It was the dawn of a new day, the one which forevermore will be called the Dawn of the Dragon, for our heroes Spyro and Cynder had just saved the world from the tyranny of Malefore. Their flight seemed happy and carefree, as if it was for sheer fun rather than just necessity. As if they finally had the time to relax and just... enjoy each others company.

"I can't believe that the war is finally over!" Spyro remarked, swooping through the air effortlessly.

"Well you'd better believe it purple boy, because it is", said Cynder sarcastically, though her eyes twinkled in mischief.

Spyro started, a little taken aback by the name. Then, almost as if it had been summoned, a memory came to him, from back when they were in Malefore's Lair. Spyro panted, exhausted after that terrifying battle with Malefore, but even as he felt relief, even as he saw the joy in Cynder's eyes, he realized that it was not over. A sinking feeling came to his heart, as even though the evil dragon of prophecy had been destroyed - punished by divine intervention for his heinous crimes - the world that he had fought to protect, the world which he had just saved, will still die. It will still be destroyed. He looked at Cynder, but he was surprised - it looked like she understood.

"Spyro, I am sorry, I am so sorry." she said, sadness clouding her eyes at the unfairness of it all. Then, Spyro felt calm. If this was the end... well all things must end. Whether it comes sooner or later, in the end it is up to fate. So there is no point in worrying about it.

As Spyro realized this, he tried to explain it to Cynder. "Don't be, its over now." he said reassuringly, his expression peaceful. As they looked at each others eyes, the world continued to destroy itself all around them. As Spyro prepared to meet his end, he had a flashback of what Ignitus had said what felt like Months ago. "Spyro, when a dragon dies, he does not truly leave this world. His spirit lives on, binding itself with nature, offering hope for the future..."Wait, 'binding itself with nature'... Spyro snapped his eyes open, realizing what he must do. But, Cynder!

"I know what to do. Just... get out of here Cynder!" "Spyro no, you don't have to do anything!"

Cynder protested, horrified at what this could mean. Desperate to stop his suicidal intentions, she said, "Lets just go!"

Spyro snapped, angry at what she said. Why can't you understand? It's hard enough for me without you protesting!

"Where Cynder?!", he shouted. "There will be nothing left! The world is breaking apart."

Then he stopped, realizing that she was just worried about him.

He sighed. "But I think I can stop it... I think I am meant to!", he said finally in a gentler voice.

Cynder just looked at him for a long time, a strange expression brewing in her eyes. "Then I'm with you."

At first Spyro looked incredulous, about to protest. But then he realized that this decision was final, and simply turned away, unable to bear the strange emotions that rose within him when he looked at her. He steeled his heart, and concentrated his powers, without a single care for his health. Almost bursting from the tension, he released them, all in a single Fury wave, energizing the very ions of the planet, forcing them to rejoin, pulling the world back together. But as he did, he thought he heard something from Cynder... "I love you." he remembered this, he looked at the black dragoness in question, seriously asking himself if he loved her back, simultaneously wondering what love was, having never heard of it before. Then he realized that that was the feeling he had felt on that day, the same feeling he still felt now. This was when he realized; I love her too. But how could he tell her? Surely not now! Not after that frantic struggle trying to escape before the world shut completely! I should wait... for a more romantic moment.

He cleared his throat self-consciously, "So... what do we do now?", he asked sheepishly.

"Ha! The great saviors' doesn't know what to do!", Cynder said mischievously. Then her expression turned serious, wondering what in fact, they should do now. "Well... I guess we should go back to the Guardians, tell them we made it."

"Not all of us...", muttered Spyro, remembering the fall of Ignitus, back at the Belt of Fire. But his sadness seemed to have diminished somewhat since remembering what Ignitus said about dragons dying. Thank you old friend, I hope you are watching over me now. Cynder didn't realized that this didn't cause him as much pain as before, deciding to not say anything rash like that again. That was why they didn't say anything significant on the long, constant flight back home. As they landed on Warfang's Great Wall, a yellow speck zoomed straight at Spyro, soon making him stumble back from the impact. "You did it! You did it! You actually did it!", shouted Sparx, hugging his adopted brother hard, tears of joy running down his cheeks.

Cynder couldn't help putting in a sarcastic, "Was there any doubt in the matter?",Hoping to get a laugh from him. Then Sparx stopped, noticing the black dragon next to him. He pushed off immediately, brushing off his tears and clearing his throat.

"What is the she witch doing here?!", he shouted in mock horror, while it was anger that truly lined his golden face.

At this Spyro rounded on Sparx angrily, "Oh for the sake of the Ancestors! What is with you?! Treat her with some respect Sparx! If it weren't for her, you wouldn't, alone with everyone else would, be here!"

Sparx just looked at Spyro, a look of terror on his face. Spyro had never ever spoken to him like that before.

"Gee Spyro, I am sorry! I didn't realize she meant so much to you." Spyro softened his expression, but he still said firmly, "Apologies to her, not me!"

With a look of very un-Sparx-like look of genuine apology, he turned to Cynder and said, "I am sorry."

"That's ok Sparx!", said Cynder, a smile on her face.

Surprised at this, Sparx smiled back. It was then they both agreed not to torment each other anymore, even if for now it was only to keep Spyro, the dragon they both loved differently, happy.

Then Sparx looked at Spyro with a hurt expression. "I-I've been thinking... And I think I should go visit my Mum and Dad again... I-it's been so long since I've seen them-"

"Sparx", interrupted Spyro. Sparx looked up at him. Spyro smiled at him, "Say hello to them from me." Smiling, Sparx set out to his homelands.

As Spyro turned to Cynder, he noticed that she looked a little sad. "Cynder, what's wrong?"

"Well it's just that... if Sparx, someone who actually knows me reacted like that, how do you think will the rest of the population, who hates me by the way, will react?", she replied a little sarcastically, though if possible, her eyes became even sadder.

Spyro sighed. "Don't worry Cynder! I am sure they will recognize you from when we stayed and defended the city before! Remember the siege? We were the only dragons helping! And besides, I am here! I will protect you!"

Cynder smiled at last, "I guess you are right."

"I always am!", declared Spyro mischievously, mostly to get Cynder to laugh. "Now lets find the Guardians!"

With that the two dragons swooped down from the wall onto the streets below. At first nobody noticed him, too busy with their own affairs of rebuilding and repairing after the last siege. But then, a voice called out, "Could it be? By the ancestors it! The great Purple Dragon has returned!" With that everybody looked, soon rushing to congratulate and thank the dragon, surrounding him until nobody could actually see him. As the crowd started to pushed and shoved just to get closer to him, nobody noticed Cynder being thrown aside. She looked at where Spyro, now absolutely hedged in by fans of all ages, shapes, and species, and smiled, knowing he deserved the attention more than she did. She decided to wait for him in a nearby alleyway, hoping he would see her and come to her soon. Sinking into a sitting position, she closed her eyes, knowing it would take a while. Next thing she knew, she was hurtling through a wall, only half hearing somebody's yell as she blacked out. "CYNDER!"

**Well that was all for chapter one. **


	2. Chapter 2

** I would like to say thank you again to my co-author Binary10011. Disclaimer I do not own any one in the spyro franchise. **

Cynder opened her eyes just a crack, though the sudden brightness of the day almost made her headache return. She moaned, closing her eyes again.

"Cynder, Cynder!", screamed Spyro, breaking out of the crowd, running towards her. He stood next to her, scanning her for any injuries. "Are you alright?!"

Cynder groaned again, looking up at him through heavy eyelids. "Spyro, I am alright, what happened?", she mumbled at last. She stood up shakily, leaning on Spyro for support.

"Shh!", Spyro quieted her, "don't say anything now, just relax", he said absently, turning around to face the dragons and cheetahs which were gathering around.

"Who did this?", he asked, his voice shaking slightly.

"I did", declared a tall, proud looking dragon. His scales were of a more candy-red than the usual orangey color associated with Fire dragons, but his orange eyes burned with the impulsiveness that symbolizes his element.

Spyro advanced towards him, ignoring the massive crowd that was gathering around him. "Why?"

"Why?!", to his astonishment, the red dragon guffawed violently, completely without emotion.

The red dragon closed his eyes shut tightly, as if willing them not to release the tears that had begun forming. "You ask why I have punished the Terror of the Skies?!"

Cynder winced heavily at this, though she said nothing.

Tremors shook the crowd, as they remembered what had happened during the horrifyingly long reign of the Terror of the Skies. Many closed their eyes in sorrow, as if trying in vain to forget, shaking violently, remembering the dying calls of their mates, and the cries of their terrified children. They remembered the grief and the terrible guilt that they had had at having to leave their mates and partners, and they remembered the gut-wrenching, mind blowing pain of loss... as if a gaping hole had opened up within them, sucking all the happiness out.

Heaving a shuddering breath, the red dragon continued, "Because she is the reason why my mate and children are dead!"

"She is why my cubs will never know their father!", shouted a cheetah hysterically, "They have lost their mentor, and their future!"

"I would have been formal mates with her the day after you killed her, you daemon!", cried a dragon, yellow scales dulled with dirt, weeping uncontrollably onto another's shoulder.

"I don't know what dark magic you used to trick our savior, but we all know your form is a fake!", shouted a younger cheetah, possibly one of the few that were not old enough to mate (and lose him or her), whilst also taking part in the war.

As they and others began to tell their stories, the whole crowd was whipped into a frenzy of accusations, detailing the horrible deeds committed by the Terror of the Skies.

"She killed my mother! Why? She was too old to defend herself anyway!-"

"-my mate was only protecting her kits!"

"We lived there for ten generations!"

"You daemon!"

"Monster!"

As they continued, Spyro glanced about worriedly, thankful for Cynder being of steel heart. Of course, he had realized that something like this could have happened, but he had never given it much thought before, believing that the crowds wouldn't blame Cynder for what Malefore made her do.

_Wait, they don't know that!_

"No!", shouted Spyro desperately, "The dragoness lying before you now, is not evil! She is as much your savior as I! Without her, I would never have succeeded! Without her, the world would not have survived!"

The crowd questioned, dumbfounded at his defense of her.

"This dragon, has suffered. Suffered more than any of you!", Spyro pushed on, yelling himself hoarse. The crowd shrank back a little at the last bit, though mostly in incredulity than belief, "Since she has hatched, since she was just a tiny dragonet,she was hurt! Whipped and hit, attacked and relentlessly, unendingly abused!"

The red dragon suddenly cocked his head, wondering if what he said was true. _That would explain why she seemed so devoid of character... only that maniacal sadism. _

Others around him began thinking the same thing, and though the thought of forgiveness never once crossed their minds, doubt rose in them.

"As if having ones childhood so horrendously stolen wasn't enough, the true reason for her existence was revealed. For do you know why her egg was taken, citizens of Warfang? It is to open the portal to Convexity, a strange realm where the Dark Master was imprisoned", he paused, sorrowfully scanning the faces of the crowd.

They just looked, understanding dawning on their faces, though some still looked puzzled as to how this relates to them.

"But she wouldn't do that out of her own free will!", explained Spyro, "So Malefore possessed her."

The entire crowd gasped, horrified at what had happened.

"He forced her to do his bidding, changing her form to make her more powerful. He twisted her mind, bent her emotions and for a time, he changed who she was...", Spyro looked at the crowd. "...into the monster that you saw"

"But surely she knew what she was doing!", shouted a distraught male cheetah, remembering the terrible onslaught on his tribe, and how Cynder had led the charge. He remembered how his mate and the other nursing mothers were attacked, how they were trapped and how he couldn't save either his mate or his cubs. "Didn't you feel anything when you attacked? Had you no soul?"

Cynder broke then, her control over her emotions breaking. She felt tears roll down her face as she said, "No. I enjoyed it."

The crowd gave a loud and horrified gasp, and took a step back in surprise.

"WH-what?", asked the male cheetah, his voice utterly devoid of any emotion. "You felt happy?!"

"You really are a monster!", shouted another cheetah.

"Why do you live while they died?!", shouted a dragon hysterically, the others joining.

Cynder covered her face with her wings, unable to bear the horror of the crowd.

"Wait!", shouted Spyro desperately, "She was forced to do that by the dark master!"

A cry of incredulous protest rang through the crowd at this.

"You liars, you pathetic, monstrous liars!", shouted a dragon hysterically. "Hurt us more, why don't you!"

"You can't be forced to enjoy something you monsters!", shouted another angrily.

"STOP IT!", Spyro boomed, silencing the crowd. "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND, NONE OF YOU UNDERSTAND!"

For a minute, everybody looked on in stunned silence, before one cheetah broke out of her stupor. "You are right, we don't understand, SO TELL US, YOU IDIOT!"

Spyro closed his eyes to the cheers that followed, dreading that it had come to this. He had never intended for it to be revealed this way. In fact, if he could have helped it, he had hoped to not tell it to anyone. But alas, fate has no mercy. "Does any one of you understand how being possessed feels, and what it does to you?"

Some snorted loudly at this, thinking that it was a rhetorical question. But then they saw the haunted look in Spyro's violet eyes - the strange way that they drew you in, as if to trap you forever. They quieted down, mesmerized.

"The feeling of being possessed is strange. First, one feels a drowning sensation, as if something liquid is pooling and climbing above your feet, your neck, and your face and over your nose. But unlike normal drowning, you feel happy about this, as in some twisted way you are enjoying the sensation of drowning. Secondly, you lose your ideals, your knowledge of friend and foe, and you forget what you are, what you do and what you were about to do. Instead, you are overcome by a sadistic desire to kill and maim. Your entire personality changes, almost as if someone else using your body...", Spyro paused, the haunted look as strong as ever. "I know... from experience."

The crowd gave a startled cry, their eyes widening in horror.

"You! You were possessed too?", asked a cheetah nervously.

"Not by Malefore no!", reassured Spyro, "But sometimes when I am very angry, or when my emotions are particularly high, I... change... into a sadistic monster. But that is not the worst. The true terror is when I am myself again, because I don't remember what I did, so I don't know who... suffered at my claws. My worst horror is finding someone I cared about dead by my claw."

The crowd gasped again.

"But my point is that I know how possession feels, so I am asking you to forgive her!" Spyro finished.

The crowd just looked in a stunned stupor.

"B-but how can we live with you two close by?", asked a voice suddenly.

"We are not safe with you! You may kill us all, you may turn out just like Malefore!", shouted another hysterical voice.

Spyro sighed, having already realized the possibility of this, "Then we will leave you alone... in Exile."

The members of the crowd shot pondering glances at each other, wondering if this is the right course of action. Then they nodded at each other, grim looks on their faces.

The red dragon from before stepped forward, "Then Spyro and Cynder, you have until this time tomorrow to leave the reaches of Warfang forever, never returning upon pain if death!", he pronounced.

Spyro nodded once at him, before turning to Cynder once again, "Lets go see the Guardians, Cynder."

As the crowd slowly dispersed, the pair went towards the centre of the city, where there was a massive cylindrical tower. Though they had no way of knowing if this was the Dragon Temple of Warfang, they felt instinctively drawn to it, and so they went.

The doors to the temple were made out of a kind of wood, unlike the doors back at the old Dragon Temple, but these had the dragon figurehead on it. As they stepped closer, the doors seemed to open on their own, prompting them to go in.

Inside was a massive chamber, though not as big as the building itself (hinting at the possibility of extra rooms and chambers). On the walls was a beautiful tapestry depicting dragons, cheetahs and moles in combat against massive armies. Upon looking closely however, one could see that this tapestry was not a single picture, but a massive series of them, as small areas of it seemed to be displaying things completely irrelevant to one another; one such scene depicted a cheetah attacking a dragon, but just a few centimeters away, a mole was defending a crude looking wall against a grublin.

The floor was very interesting, as it was made of a stone bearing a startling resemblance to marble. It let the light from the high-set windows illuminate the room beautifully, perfectly bathing the four massive cushions on the platform in front of them.

Spyro gasped, for on those cushions were the legendary Guardians of the four elements!

"Greetings, young dragons, how do you fare?", called out Terrador, the often unintentionally powerful Earth Guardian.

"I fare well, Terrador, how are all of you?", asked Spyro, smiling at the other Guardians.

"I am very well, Spyro, in fact I very excited, I am on the edge of a breakthrough in perfecting a new technology through the use of my electric power!", said Volteer excitedly. "It is simply marvelous, astounding and fascinating that it works, but who am I to question?"

"Oh stop boring him with your prattle, Volteer! As for me, I am very well thank you", said Cyril, his tone, as was his manner, icily calm.

"And I am also well Spyro, but... where is Ignitus?", asked Terrador, puzzled at him not appearing.

Spyro shuffled is feet, looking down at the floor. Cynder draped a wing over him in reassurance. "Ignitus... sacrificed himself for us back at the Belt of Fire...", she said, knowing that Spyro still hadn't come to terms with his death yet.

Terrador's widened in surprise, Cyril gasped and Volteer just cried out.

"No, this cannot be!", muttered Terrador, praying to the ancestors for Ignitus.

"May you guide us in death as you when you lived, old friend", Volteer prayed.

"You were avenged, mentor!", Cyril muttered vehemently.

Spyro just closed his eyes, images of his old friend flashing before his very eyes. He remembered the training sessions, the advice he had given him, the closeness he had had with the old dragon, and the enduring attachment he had had with him. "We shall all miss you Ignitus"

Then Terrador looked at him, "At least we are at peace now, Spyro. Ignitus did not die in vain."

"And we are together again, are we not? Now you can help me with my research into elemental magic!", declared Volteer happily. "Especially you Cynder, as you have utterly unique abilities."

Both Spyro and Cynder looked down at this, first feeling sad, then utter hatred at the unfairness of it all. With sinking hearts, Spyro explained," Sorry old friends, but we have accepted exile from Warfang to keep the peace between the citizens and us. We don't know where we will go now, but we will send you a message so you can always find us."

"What?! You two saved the world! Why can't they accept you?", screeched Cyril, outraged.

"They can't because I have committed too many crimes. It is to save me that Spyro accepted exile for us both", explained Cynder. She looked at Spyro tenderly, wondering if he felt the same way as she did. She didn't really feel that sad at not living at Warfang, as she had not expected to be accepted anyway, in fact she was happy to spend her life with Spyro alone.

"But still, you were not yourself!", cried Terrador. "This is an outrage!"

"I know Terrador, but I tried everything!", Spyro said in a resigned voice. "We have until tomorrow to leave."

"Then you must stay the night young dragons, for a new home is better found in the morning", Volteer offered immediately.

They accepted gladly, following the Guardians to their rooms.

* * *

The next morning, they were ready. Having been fed a full meal by the Guardians, they flew off, circling once around Warfang, waving goodbye to the Guardians, before leaving Warfang forever.

**I hope you like it.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello to all readers, I do apologies for not saying this in one of the previous chapters. This story was going to be the revised version of my first story Will There Be Light At the End of the Tunnel, but me and Binary10011 decided to change the plot a little. This is a different story, but it will have some similarities to my first story. I hope this clears up some confusion.**

The long hallway echoed with the deep, rumbling sounds of heavy footsteps and the paintings of famous individuals on the walls shook heavily to and fro, as a very old and powerful Earth dragon hurried angrily towards the main hall.

Struggling to keep up with him were a very eccentric looking Electric dragon, and a regal Ice dragon.

As the firelight from torches mounted onto the walls flickered in the breeze created by their speed, the electric dragon tried to calm the Earth dragon down, "Please, Terrador! It is against the laws of ethics for Spyro to be banished, however one must consider the reason as to why that happened in the first place!"

"As much as it pains me to admit it, Volteer is right!", added the Ice dragon, "I understand that you believe Spyro is perfect, and frankly, I am surprised as well, but you must understand that we have no way of knowing what happened to him during the war!"

Angered, Terrador rounded on the Ice dragon, "Spyro is a hero! He stopped the war! What horrendous thing must he do for all that to be forgotten?! The Spyro we know would never do anything like that!", he panted heavily, eyes brimming with anger, "You would do well to remember that, Cyril!"

The Ice dragon hissed angrily, but he didn't say anything. In fact he was rather ashamed at himself for doubting Spyro.

They burst into the main hall, their noisy entry creating many echoes ringing through the enormous space.

"Reginald!", thundered Terrador at the empty hall, taking his seat at one of the thrones.

As the other Guardians lied down as well, an old and mole hurried into the room, his blood red robes flowing behind him, and his sleeves far too big for him. His face hinted at kindness, but his expression was nervous, "Yes, my Lord?"

"I want a public meeting held here NOW!", shouted Terrador.

The mole started in surprise, "But my Lord, it will take time to post the notices and to make sure everyone is accounted for, moreover there are the issues with working times being interrupted and massive delays in-", the mole tried to protest.

"Reginald... it is an emergency", said Volteer in a small voice, casting a worried look at Terrador.

Reginald got the hint, "Yes my Lord, at once my Lord!", with that Reginald hurried outside, his robes almost tripping him over in his haste.

"Now, the truth will be revealed...", said Cyril with a meaningful glance at Terrador, hinting that he still was doubtful about Spyro.

Terrador didn't say anything.

The thunderous tolling of the great Warfang Bell got the attention of everybody. Instinctively knowing that they are summoned, the masses began pouring into the great hall.

There was much clamoring for choice seats, with the cheetahs wanting to sit, and the dragons (of which there were few) wanted to stand. The moles were almost trampled, but most managed to scurry out of danger in time.

Seeing that all those that were going to come were probably here by now, Terrador made to start the meeting, but he was stopped by Volteer.

"Terrador wait! I recommend strategizing the proceeds of this meeting to achieve the desired outcome. Jumping straight to the subject may not be wise!", he explained.

"He is right Terrador, we should say something else first. There may be some who expect us to talk about their exile first!", put in Cyril, "Perhaps the ones who instigated this atrocity would want you to give them credit!"

Terrador sighed, "Very well."

With that he stepped forward, taking his footsteps with great care, holding his head high. In front of all that was gathered, he looked regal and intimidating. "Silence", he said in a conversational tone, though everybody heard.

Holding his head in the very image of sorrow, he mustered up the courage to announce something very important to the crowd, "I, the Earth Guardian of Warfang, have found that it has fallen to me to announce news of a very great calamity; for the great dragon and Guardian of Fire, Ignitus, has fallen...", he closed his eyes, holding back tears, as the entire crowd mourned their loss.

Some mourned quietly, remembering the feats pulled off by Ignitus in his prime, when he protected their villages from harm. Some cried zealously, as Ignitus had been a much loved figure.

"Ignitus, wherever you are now, our thoughts are with you. Your kind and wise soul guided and comforted us in our time of need, and delivered us to our path in life. As you were in life, we hope you are in death; forever watching us, guiding and comforting us. Though your life was not lost in vain, we will miss you Ignitus... and as is the ways of the dragons, I hope to see you again later on", finished Terrador, his head still held high, though his shoulders drooped and eyes shut tightly.

"To Ignitus!", rose a cheer from the crowd.

"Watch over us!", shouted a dragon.

"Guide us!", yelled a crying mole.

"You will not be forgotten!", declared a cheetah.

"Citizens of Warfang!", shouted Cyril, "Do you know why the great Ignitus died?"

Nobody said anything, strange looks coming to their faces as they realized that no one actually knew how he had died.

"Ignitus sacrificed himself!", said Terrador calmly, though his voice shook with emotion. "He gave himself to the great fires, in order to save us all! His last act was to ensure that we would survive!", Terrador paused, judging the crowd.

"His last act, citizens of Warfang", paused Volteer, "was to save our hero, Spyro the Dragon!"

Cheers rose from the crowd at this, until some of them realized what had just happened to their savior.

"Spyro, along with the dragoness Cynder, saved our world and all those within it. They ensured that Ignitus didn't die in vain!", Terrador's voice became louder as he continued, "But now, when you all are reaping the rewards of the end of the war, when the hard work is finished, instead of welcoming Spyro and Cynder as heroes, you exile them!"

"What is the meaning of this?!", screeched Cyril angrily, "What is wrong with you all to be so cruelly ungrateful?"

Suddenly, a dragon stepped forward, his eyes burning with a deep hatred, his face twisted into an expression of zealous righteousness, "You call us ungrateful, you try to shame us. You think us fools, you belittle us. But you would do well to understand us, for we are the masses. In the end, we have the right!"

Cheers greeted his words, as many looked fervently up at him.

"Too long have we suffered under the Tyranny of General Cynder!

The never-ending war, the incessant killing... we have endured! We have been robbed of our innocence; conscripted to serve an army! And all, all of it was to battle the worst being in the history of this world; Cynder! But then Cynder was never accountable for her actions was she? She was never to be blamed for what happened!", he said.

But the crowd looked more and more puzzled as he said this, not understanding why he was sounding like he was forgiving Cynder. It was his idea to banish the couple in the first place, so why does he defend them now?

"What nonsense!", he thundered, making the crowd roar in approval. Zealous anger flared in their eyes, as cheetahs and dragons alike felt the renewed hatred that is the result of loss. They felt their pain redouble, they felt their memories so hated return.

"Cynder is no more free of blame than Malefore was! It was her body that invaded us, it was her claws that so horrendously took the lives of our closest family members! And so it is she that we blame! It is she that is to be punished!", he stepped down as he said this, being swallowed into the crazed ranks of the cheering crowd.

Terrador stepped forward, desperate to control them, "But wait! You mentioned it yourself - it was "her body" that invaded you! Does that mean you know of her corruption? Does that mean that you understand her innocence?!", he thundered, shooting a deadly glare at them.

"Her innocence?!", shouted Vermello incredulously, "Do you, all knowing Guardians, understand just how innocent she was?!", he yelled, sarcasm dripping in his voice. Many of the crowd also joined in jeering at the outnumbered Guardians, having lost the respect they used to hold. "Do you call murderers innocent?!"

"Do not speak to us that way!", screeched Cyril imperiously, extremely angry at the crowd's treatment of them.

That was the wrong thing to say, as the crowd became more and more angry.

"We can speak to you however we like!", declared a cheetah, hackles raised along his back.

"You have no power over us to speak to us like that!"

"Citizens of Warfang!", shouted Vermello, silencing the crowd once more. They looked in a mad fervor at him, hanging on to his every word. "Do not attack the Guardians, for they are merely ignorant! It is we who know the truth and it is we who must tell them!", he said quickly. The crowd seemed a little less than pleased with this, but they were pacified, as they didn't want to start another fight so soon after the last one.

"Well Vermello, we really don't know! All we understand is that Cynder was instrumental in defeating the dark master! What say you to that? If she was really so evil, would she attack Malefore? What say you!", shouted Volteer, loosing his cool.

At this, many of the crowd laughed incredulously, mocking the Guardians. Vermello snorted derisively, "So the puppet bit its master, big deal!"

"But then you understand that she was not a thrall anymore?!", asked Terrador desperately.

"Yes, she is not enthralled anymore!", conceded Vermello, surprising everyone, "Which means she is free to kill as she wishes now! No longer is she limited to carrying out orders, she is a free murderer!"

The crowd howled in fear, expressing their support for Vermello.

"Murderer? Spyro would never let that happen!", shouted Cyril.

"Spyro?! If anything he would help her!", thundered Vermello. The crowd continued to yell their support.

"WHAT?! WHAT IN THE ANCESTORS' NAMES DO YOU MEAN?!", thundered Volteer, now having totally lost his cool.

"Do you mean to say, that he didn't tell you, his most trusted friends, what he told us - complete strangers?!", Vermello asked more with malicious delight than genuine curiosity or surprise, "That is indeed interesting, and perhaps telling of his true nature!", the last part he addressed to the crowd, who promptly roared their support again.

"Do indulge us then, oh mightily Vermello!", said Cyril sarcastically, spite dripping from his tone.

Vermello didn't seem to understand the concept of sarcasm, acting almost as if he took his words completely at face value. Looking rather pleased with himself at being called "mighty", he said, "Spyro, in his foolish and utterly baffling defense of the traitorous Cynder, let slip that he was blighted with the taint of the dark master himself.

Spyro the dragon is corrupted!", he screamed to the masses, sending them roaring again.

Terrador stepped back in shock, looking as if his world had come crashing down. He felt his chest constricting; both in fear and horror. "No... no NO!"

"Yes yes yes!", shouted Vermello, grinning manically, "He told us, the wronged and the hurt, the true reason why he was defending the vile Cynder! You see, she was just like him - daemon spawn!"

"H-How can you say that?!", screeched Cyril, not believing him.

"He, your so-called HERO, admitted to LIKING the killing! He admitted to loving it!", shouted Vermello, not even bothering to face the Guardians now.

"What?! How do we know you say the truth?", demanded Terrador desperately, sure that he was lying.

"You doubt me? Are you calling me a liar?", screeched Vermello angrily. He gestured at the crowd, "They are my testimony!"

Needless to say, this sent the crowd into a frenzy. Declarations of witnessing the admission of Spyro filled the air, almost deafening the Guardians.

Volteer looked dumbstruck, but he stepped forward, "If this was true, then why did you banish them?! You should have kept them for us to interrogate!"

Vermello tensed slightly, and Terrador narrowed his eyes, noticing.

At that Terrador rounded on him, betrayal and sorrow marked on his ancient visage, "What are you saying, Volteer? You think we should execute them?!", he shouted angrily at his closest friend after Ignitus.

"No Terrador, I just think that we should bring them in for questioning; after all it would be good to keep them captive so that they don't cause another Malefore incident!", Volteer explained hastily. In his haste to challenge defend himself, Volteer never saw Vemello's facial expression change.

"You are absolutely right Volteer! Malefore rose to power because we helped him! If we hinder Spyro, he shouldn't be a threat!", put in Cyril.

Terrador shook his head sadly, "You would believe someone like Vermello?"

Volteer just looked at him, "It is no just him - the crowd supports his views! Surely the masses wouldn't lie?"

"We have no choice but to believe him Terrador, although I have always suspected why Spyro left without saying anything...", said Cyril thoughtfully.

But then Terrador realized something, "But wait! Why did you release Spyro and Cynder if you wanted revenge and protection so bad Vermello? Answer me that!", he demanded desperately.

Vermello looked surprised for a second before regaining his composure, "I had to let them go, because you wouldn't have listened otherwise! You would have been convinced and manipulated by those tyrants into believing them! If I had not banished them when I did, they may be ruling Warfang by now!"

"HE DID IT FOR US!", shouted the groomed crowd.

"Long live Vermello!", yelled a particularly zealous individual.

"Really Vermello? For I could have sworn that you planned this all...", muttered Terrador loudly enough for all to hear, looking at Vermello suspiciously from the corner of his eyes.

Vermello just laughed maniacally, then stopped abruptly, his expression suddenly deadly serious, "How dare you... how DARE YOU assume something like that! I am nobody but the voice of the public! It is not up to me or you who they choose as their champion, so do not say it as if I orchestrated this all! How can you say that?! My family was killed in the war! What kind of monster do you think I am to take advantage of their deaths for a petty leadership position?!", he shouted angrily, the entire crowd joining him in his passionate defense.

Even Volteer and Cyril looked at Terrador with strange expressions, as if implying that he had gone too far...

Terrador looked to Vermello and the crowd, feeling completely hollow inside, "Vermello, you have turned them all against me, even my best friends. I must ask you now: are you happy?", so saying he walked towards the crowd.

Vermello just smiled, "I have done nothing but tell the truth. If the truth breaks you, then you have been living a lie. Maybe it was meant to be!"

He looked at the crowd, "Let him pass! He is nothing now! We the citizens of Warfang, are its leaders!"

Terrador didn't look back, he just walked through the main doors and flew off.

"Citizens of Warfang! Since Ignitus is dead, we must elect a new Fire Guardian! There is usually a large competition to determine the winner...", paused Cyril. "But I think that we all know who the next Guardian of Fire is - Vermello!"

Cheers of joy and happiness rent the air, as the whole crowd wanted to congratulate the new Fire Guardian.

"Thank you Cyril, it is an honor, and I promise to use my powers for the greater good of us all!", shouted Vermello, sending the whole crowd into a frenzy.

"Long live Vermello, Guardian for Fire!", they chanted.

"Thank you all of you, for your kind support, but we must get to matters immediately!", started Vermello.

The crowd quieted down, all waiting eagerly for their instructions.

"Vermello is right!", shouted Volteer, "What do you suggest, Guardian?"

"First of all, Cynder and the traitor Spyro must be tracked down and brought back. It is imperative that they reach here alive, so that we can all get our revenge!", he shouted.

Cheers rose again from the crowd.

"I will do your bidding, Vermello!"

"Let me at them, let me at them!"

Vermello silenced them with a look, "I will choose the best patrol as soon as this meeting is over, but we have only a very slim chance of catching them now. No, the best thing to do is to bide our time and get stronger. We must prepare for the war that Spyro will bring. We will endure!"

The crowd roared in support, and even the two remaining Guardians nodded fervently.

Meanwhile, somewhere in a forest, far far away from Warfang...

The air was cool and clean, pristine in its purity. The canopies of the great forest zipped past under the two dragons, almost like a kaleidoscope of greens and browns. The sun was setting, and the dragons' flight was becoming more and more labored; a fruitless search for a new home had left them tired to the bone.

"Oh Spyro, what do we do now?", asked a worried Cynder.

Spyro looked at Cynder tenderly, losing himself in her beautiful emerald eyes. You are so beautiful when you are worried... Your eyes become big and mesmerizing, as if trying to draw the danger forever away... He snapped himself back when he saw that she was waiting for a response. He sighed, casting a tired glance in the direction of Warfang, now miles away. "I think we should hide Cynder, away from our troubles, and away from them all."

Cynder looked at Spyro concernedly, wondering why he would say such a thing, "Why should we hide?"

"Because things will become worse before they get better"

**I hope you all liked this chapter. Please review.**


	4. Chapter 4 part 1

**Hello again everyone. just as a heads up, this chapter will be a two parter.**

Night brings with it the strange allure of the dark sky, with twinkling diamonds of stars and the soft yellow orb that is the moon. Its veil burdens the eyes and calms the mind, as the chilly breeze gently whispers in the ears of the tired souls. As such it tells one to forget troubles and to relinquish responsibilities, as the day has ended and so must one rest - for the energy must be saved for tomorrow.

But for Spyro, whose mind was beset by the events of yesterday, sleep comes reluctantly. He gazed out at the stars, not for the first time wondering if his ancestors ever approved of what he had said yesterday. Sighing to himself, he let his eyes wander, both ignoring and intensely scrutinizing the melancholy landscape so strangely shadowed by the moonlight. Behind him, from the direction of the cave, he heard Cynder's footsteps. So light and precise... just like you Cynder. Spyro snapped himself out of his thoughts, knowing that Cynder wouldn't appreciate that, instead just looking out of the rocky outcropping that their cave was on. He smiled to himself at how this was much like the balconies back at Warfang - just more rugged and open.

"I never thought I would see you like this, Spyro", murmured Cynder softly so as to not break the spell.

Spyro just closed his eyes, "Everything is so different at night Cynder, so much so that sometimes... it feels like a different world."

Cynder sat down next to Spyro, coiling her tail around herself absently, wondering when he had become so philosophical. "Would you like for it to be a different world?", she asked, guilt wrenching at her heart as she realized that this was all her fault. Why do I always hurt somebody? Because of me, Spyro was exiled from the only home he has! If he rejects me... I have no one... She looked at him stiffly, trying hard not to show her anguish on her face - this decision must be his own.

Spyro sighed, opened his eyes and looked into her emerald eyes, subconsciously marveling at their allure, wondering if he would someday be enthralled by those divine eyes. A strange feeling of completeness and deep hope filled him as he whispered, "Maybe... if you're with me." So saying he felt his left wing move involuntarily, his tail uncoiled without instruction.

Even as Cynder gasped in surprise, she felt his strong and weathered wing around her body, as if insulating her protectively from the chill of the night. She felt his tail wrap around her and pull her closer to him, her body not resisting the touch; accepting the embrace.

She didn't feel insecure or awkward, as somehow her worries melted away. She closed her eyes as she involuntarily cuddled closer to his body for warmth.

Spyro nuzzled her neck reassuringly, "I am your friend Cynder... you can always be sure that I will never leave you." He smiled at her shocked expression, "Come on now... it was not that hard to figure out why you were so sad!"

Just... a friend? Came the silent question in Cynder's head, as she felt strangely disappointed by his words. I guess he didn't hear me then... "Don't make it sound as if I am a depressed dragon! I'm not always as sad as you make me out to be!" she scowled as he ruined the moment.

"Calm down, calm down! You are not a depressed dragon, Cynder!" reassured Spyro quietly, nuzzling her again, gazing at the hauntingly beautiful landscape again, as if to point at it, "This night represents you to me, Cynder." He looked at her again, gauging her response.

She just stared in wonderment, silently begging him to continue.

"One of the most prominent things about it is the darkness. This is something that we both have in common, and this is what I like about you." He paused, noticing the confused expression on Cynder's face, "That is because you truly understand me. You know what happens to me, as you alone have suffered such an affliction before." He gazed at the stars again, "That is also why I always praise it. I know that you hate it, I know the bloodshed and the horrors that has been its price, and I understand your feelings. Even if this sounds extremely selfish, without it you would have been a very different dragoness, and I would be alone." He looked into Cynder's eyes again, silently wondering if she understood; if she forgives his praise for the darkness in her soul. "Maybe what you suffered was not so horrible, maybe it is part of what binds us together, even without the magic tether."

But she still said nothing, her impassive face revealing nothing.

"Another thing that this reminds me of is your personality. The night is commonly shunned and avoided - we seek shelter thus fleeing it, we use fire thus defying it and we sleep thus ignoring it." Cynder looked away as he said this, knowing that he is right.

"But for the one that gets through; that embraces the differences and looks past the walls, you are one in a million; smart and to-the-point, extremely loyal and always, a good friend...", Spyro paused, shifting uncomfortably at what he was going to say.

Cynder wondered if he would say what she thinks that he will say, making her heart beat frantically in anticipation.

"...in fact if I may be so honest", paused Spyro, looking deep into Cynder's eyes, an expression of longing and love on his face, "I view you as more than just a friend..."

Cynder looked at Spyro sharply, her breath catching in her chest, a feeling of supreme completeness and eternal bliss seemed to overwhelm her.

"Cynder, you have stood by my side forever, helping me, comforting me, giving me hope and most of all, you gave me something to fight for... I want you - us to be more than just friends Cynder... I mean... will you be my mate?"

Cynder felt her heart burst in happiness, as she screamed out as hard as she could, "Yes Spyro, yes!", all the while sobbing uncontrollably into the shoulder of her mate.

Spyro just hugged her firmly, entwining his neck around hers, as if to signify their unity.

For a moment the couple didn't do anything, just staying in their tight embrace, their eyes closed and their minds only full of thoughts about each other. The night, ever watchful but never intervening, went on around them, as the stars twinkled in approval and the moon shone ever cheerfully.

A grin of crazy happiness on their faces, the two dragons broke out of their embrace, watching the night once more, each thanking it silently for its beauty and grace in letting them be mates.

Tails entwined, they headed for the shelter of the cave, giving in at last to sleep.

** I hoped you all liked this chapter as much as I did. Please review.**


	5. Chapter 5 part 1

**Hello every. I am sorry for the long wait for this chapter. Binary10011 has been very buisy so he wasn't able to work on this chapter. Also there will not be a part 2 for the preveus chapter. Me and Binary10011 desided to scrap the idea but there will be a part 2 for this chapter. Please tell me your thoughts for this chapter. I do not own any thing that has to do with Spyro. I only own Vermello and Reginald. every one else belongs to XxTheSomeonexX**

Soft footfalls thudded on the cold floors of the Dragon Temple, as an old mole hurried to the Grand Hall of the Guardians. His breathing labored, his cheeks puffy from the effort, Reginald tried all the while to not trip over his infernally long robes.

_Master Vermello will be so pleased with my news! Oh curse my arthritis!_ He was gritted his teeth determinedly. _I can't delay, Master Vermello needs me_!

* * *

Meanwhile, in the Grand Hall...

* * *

The floor was one that was a piece of art in its own right, from the days when the moles revered the dragons as something akin to their gods. But where the four great thrones stood, it was much scuffed and worn.

"How is it...", snarled the red dragon, eyes glittering dangerously, "...that after a _week _of searching...", he stopped pacing abruptly, "...we couldn't find a SINGLE CLUE as to the whereabouts of those...", he hollered angrily, spluttering as he struggled to think of an appropriate description, "...those... _apostates?!_"

"Vermello, calm yourself! As a Guardian, you must not let your emotions get the better of you!", remarked Cyril in a disapproving way, "Especially as there is a perfectly logical reason as to why this is taking so long!"

"Cyril is correct. The dragon realms offer copious sanctuaries for our queries - therefore it is only to be expected for some time to be taken!", added Volteer in his usual fast paced speech.

Just then, the rather small side door banged open, revealing a panting old mole, "Good, I found you-"

"Ah, Reginald, my ever faithful servant - is there something you needed?", sneered Vermello, a sinister grin splitting his face.

Reginald gulped despite himself, realizing the breach of etiquette. "A thousand pardons, Lord Vermello! But I have glad tidings for you!", a hint of desperation entered his somewhat hoarse voice as he said that, a noticeably large bead of sweat running down his wizened face.

"Well?! OUT WITH IT!", Vermello thundered, impatience at the _slowness _of the world almost making him grate his teeth.

Shocked into action, Reginald stuttered, "A-a sc-cout saw th-them flying into the Forest of Valadar!"

"Where in Malefor's name is that?!", Vermello spun around to face Volteer, never casting the cowering mole a second glance, "And fire this coward! What use do _I _have for advisors?" he snorted derisively, rolling his eyes in disdain.

"No!", thundered Terrador, forcing himself between Cyril and Volteer, "The post of Advisor is not just to provide advice Vermello! _You know how this is!_"

Vermello sighed, shaking his head patronizingly, "I have pay no mind for such frivolity! But... I am sure that _you _are positively _dying_ to remind us, Terrador."

Terrador gaped at the red dragon, momentarily losing his composure. _He really has changed... _

He shook his head in disbelief, gesturing at Reginald, "Reginald, come here."

The mole moved mechanically towards the dragon, his eyes still wide in shock, dragging his robes behind.

"Reginald, how long have you been in this position?", Terrador curved his neck as he spoke, wanting to reassure and comfort the old mole.

"Four-Forty years tomorrow", Reginald stuttered out, suddenly bursting into quiet sobbing, leaning heavily on Terrador's foot.

Terrador patted his back gently, "Forty years...", he echoed, casting a piercing glance at Vermello, "And how old were you when you started, Reginald?"

Reginald looked up at Terrador sharply, his eyes watering again as he mumbled out, "I was thirteen years old then, my liege."

"Thirteen years", echoed Terrador in a hollow voice. _Has it really been that long? It felt just like yesterday when I met him... _He blinked as he remembered his arrival to the now - destroyed dragon temple. Shaking his head, he dragged himself back to the present,

Closing his eyes, Terrador continued, "Do you remember how he helped us settle in ourselves, how he made sure we knew what happened where, and who to trust?" When he opened his eyes, he found himself facing Cyril.

Cyril turned his head away, though his neck became less arched and his posture less proud.

"And Volteer, remember how he was like a father to you - protecting and making sure you were ok?", implored Terrador, staring intently at Volteer.

Volteer just shuffled his feet uncomfortably, casting a quick glance at Vermello.

Vermello took a breath sharply, realizing that things were getting out of hand, "Ah Terrador", he strode towards the dragon in question, a mockingly concerned expression on his face, "the angsty goody goody, I forgot how _nice _and _caring _you were!"

Terrador grit his teeth tightly, holding back his mounting anger just barely. _He wants me to break - he wants me to attack him! That will convince everyone I am volatile and unstable! Probably was his plan all along. _He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

"But I didn't change - you did. Why?", Terrador looked straight at Vermello, emboldened by his rage. _There is no use trying to create smoke without a fire - might as well go straight for the deer's neck!_

Vermello seemed shaken, but he shook it off, "That is for me to know and you to find out - if you can!", he added snidely, "In the meantime, I see no reason as to why I should let that _thing_-", he gestured to Reginald, "-stay here at _my _temple!"

He nodded at Cyril and Volteer, "Get rid of him now." So saying he left the chamber, the doors closing behind him with a boom.

Wordlessly, Cyril and Volteer stepped forward, deliberately ignoring Terrador.

"Wait, what are you doing?", asked Terrador uncertainly, his gaze darting between Cyril and Volteer.

"You heard the Guardian, that mole is no longer part of the staff of the Warfang Dragon Temple, thus he must be shown the way out!", declared Cyril.

" 'That mole'?! Listen to yourself for a minute Cyril!", implored Terrador desperately, "You are talking about the same mole that supported us during the times of Malefor's rise! _This _is how you repay him?!"

"I am only following orders, Terrador", said Cyril heavily, his eyes meeting Reginald's crying face, "it does not have to be uncomfortable."

"Besides, someone of Reginald's advancing years may find it naturally harder to keep up with the demands and rigors of modern governance - Vermello did the right thing by retiring him now, before he is struck by a stroke", added Volteer helpfully.

Reginald sniffed one final time, "It is alright Terrador, I understand what they say; I admit I have been feeling the strain as well these days...", he looked at his feet, "I am not as young as I used to be."

"Very well then, farewell old friend and mentor, may your days be good ones for the time you have left", Terrador nodded at the old mole, watching as he was escorted away by the two Guardians.

The doors slammed behind them, leaving the hall empty of all but him once more.

As the dust motes swirled around inside the sunbeams that filtered through the stained glass windows of the hall, Terrador was still occupied by the strange change in Vermello's personality.

_What happened to you Vermello? You used to be my friend..._

* * *

FLASHBACK

* * *

The day was as ordinary as days went; the sun was stuck squarely some random corner of the sky, the clouds were plentiful but not too grey and there was no hint of any overemotional and dangerous fire dragons anywhere!

The young earth dragon could not be happier as he walked towards the ancient dragon temple, though his rather mature and serious features hid this well.

In fact, it does not take much scrutiny for it to be immediately obvious that this was no ordinary dragon - for one, the ground was not marked at all by his large frame, and his posture was exceptionally ordinary, which is strangely sophisticated in an adolescent.

He noticed a tree with a particularly complex knot in its trunk, reminding him comically of his rather pompous uncle - an arrogant fire dragon with a mean streak. His best friend Malum and him used to make up jokes about him behind his back!

_Ha-ha, I can't believe I still remember that one! _

He allowed himself a smile, then a little laugh as he remembered one particular prank the duo had pulled on the uncle in question, where Malum used his prodigious skills to make a rain cloud follow Terrador's uncle around everywhere! It had been Terrador's job to convince his uncle that he has been cursed and to force him to see Aquaris, an ice dragon that charged exorbitant prices for his services.

_It almost worked as well! Of course, it was Malum's silly need to show off occasionally that our downfall - not my little mishap with the tree, no! _

What actually happened was that Malum decided to make the game more 'interesting' by using his electricity powers to make the cloud zap the fire dragon occasionally. This caused a small twinge of jealousy to spasm inside Terrador, as he suddenly made the nearest tree grow to twice its normal size.

Unfortunately, this attracted a bolt of lightning... the rest of the story is blatantly obvious if one visits the small wood near his home - the blackened ground and the charred trunks telling their own story.

The good news was that they had utterly convinced Terrador's uncle that he was cursed, but the bad news was that they were both grounded.

Of course, being grounded with Malum was never _boring_! On the contrary, some of the most fun they had was together in their room, with no one to disturb them, for that was where they were working on an elemental spell for school - the one required to be considered for Guardian training.

_Speaking of Guardian training, I still need to get there! _

Terrador started from his reminiscing and broke into a run, forgetting to use his wings in the heat of the moment.

_Just around this corner and I will b-_ [CRASH!]

"Ow!", shouted the other dragon, rubbing his head vigorously, "Why don't you watch where you are going?!"

"And why don't you...", Terrador realized suddenly that it was a fire dragon, _the same kind as my uncle! I bet he is the same as him, always so angry and so overbearing, I hate him so much! Perhaps I can have a little fun with this guy._ He struggled to think of a comeback to continue the match, but then it dawned on him, "lose some weight?!"

The other dragon snarled angrily, shaking himself to get rid of the accumulated mud and grit, "Oh you wanna go do you, you wanna go?!"

"Yes I do _want _to go", corrected Terrador sarcastically, "I am getting terribly late!"

"Argh!", roared the dragon, pouncing on Terrador and tackling him into the ground, "You will pay for this!", spluttered the dragon angrily, his words almost indistinguishable through his clenched jaw.

"Come again?", asked Terrador mockingly as he forced the roots of the nearby trees to burst out of the ground, wrapping around the enemy dragon tightly.

But unfortunately the roots didn't get that far before the other dragon opened his mouth.

A blistering inferno of heat and fire burst out, consuming the enormous roots like a tsunami wave, "How do you like _that_?!"

Terrador winced at the damage to the great trees, his heart wrenching at the realization that it was his fault. But he wasn't finished, "Oh great Ancestors! You are a _fire _dragon?! Why with that color scheme I thought you were the dragon of _love!_"

The other dragon went deadly silent, smoke rising steadily from his nostrils.

"Ha-ha! You are the dragon of love!", taunted Terrador mockingly, "loser!"

The very air temperature seemed to rise a few degrees, and the oxygen seemed sparse all of the sudden. Terrador felt a mounting sense of foreboding as he realized that he was fighting with another would-be Guardian. But then he realized that this is perfect - they could find out who is stronger from the beginning, and - _no one would even think of giving me trouble!_ _Bring it on! _

So he dropped low to the ground, switching his balance towards his back legs, holding his front paws a little lightly in the air, ready to strike if things became out of hand.

The tension in the air grew even tighter, as the ground started becoming hot as well, steam steadily rising from it as the fire dragon growled angrily.

_Wait, steam? That means there must be water, and water is weak against fire! _

Terrador realized what he must do, but since the water is so spread out and available in such little concentrations in the ground, it will take some time before he could make the soil shift it all below the battleground. _Thank the ancestors that it is the rainy season!_

He concentrated on making his face blank and decided not to strike first, "What's the matter, fat a#$?", he taunted, remembering how _he _was given the same treatment at his last school, when he had been studying all the time. _The only reason why I wasn't... muscular like those jocks, was that_ I_ was more interesting in bettering my _mind _than what girls like! They didn't have to hurt me for something I can't control! _

He grinned bitterly as he remembered it. _Damn fire dragons, they are all the same! _"Well, fat a#$? What's the matter - did the ground cave in under you from all that _weight?!_"

The fire dragon growled menacingly, "Call me fat a#$, _one more time_."

Terrador replied eagerly, "_Fat a#$!_"

That broke the fire dragon, who suddenly rushed at Terrador with terrible ferocity, a translucent sheen of fire enveloping the young fire dragon as he came.

_Oh shit! He is coming too fast! _Terrador lowered his head and closed his eyes, calling to the trees to break; to fall on top of the fire dragon.

Only three of them responded, the others being too pompous and self-important to listen to him. _Even my element does not respect me still! What have I done wrong?! _

_Still, I suppose three is enough; otherwise Guardian Gaia will kill me for the damage I did! _Terrador braced himself for the impact, should it come, waiting for the trees to fall on the fire dragon.

The first one missed, falling to the ground with a hollow thud, sending a miniature shockwave racing through the ground. _Wait a minute, earth is not that soft, why is it doing that? _Realized Terrador.

The second tree fell before Terrador reached a conclusion, and it was more successful.

"Argh!", cried the fire dragon as a stray branch clipped his shoulder. The momentary shock and wince caused him to slow down _just slightly _which made him be right under the third tree as it fell!

This caused the gelatinous ground to bulge dangerously before it broke open. Dragon and tree fell into the lake below, and steam rose in clouds into the air.

_Oh the water! I forgot about the water! _Terrador cut off the flow of magic at once, causing the water to slowly drain away.

Terrador would have slapped himself if he could, realizing that Gaia would definitely have words with him about the sheer damage he caused. _Hey, but at least I won... wait, I won!_

"I WON!", shouted Terrador in sheer epiphany, "I won, against a fire dragon!" _Take that you idiot fire dragons, bullies and traitors to dragon kind!_

His cheers of joy stopped abruptly, and the very trees seemed to whisper disapprovingly among themselves. Whatever fun he had was leached from him by a terrible, soul consuming sense of... guilt.

Now the laughter seemed to echo in between the towering trunks of the trees, hollow and mocking.

"What have I done?", he muttered, feeling his heart almost break from the pressure as panic overcame him.

"WOO HOO! THAT WAS AWESOME!", shouted someone from behind.

Terrador whirled around almost, "Who was that?"

"Its me of course! Who else?", replied the someone as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. And so sprang up out of the undergrowth, a dragon unlike any he had seen before.

_It must be a dragoness, no male would be that slender. _Even panicked as he was, Terrador could see that she was rather beautiful; a pearl white underbelly so innocent and so pure, accentuated by tightly interlocking scales the color of fresh spring grass. _I get it; she was lying on her belly so that her scales would camouflage her... clever!_

She laughed at his surprise, "Didn't see me did you? I have that effect on everybody", bounding over to him, something like awe etched on her face, "But enough about me, you were AWESOME!"

Terrador was startled out of his musings - _She laughed! Not giggle, she actually laughed! _- To the present, realizing that she had said something, "R-really?" _No one said I was awesome before... I mean, Malum did, but no girl ever said that before! _Then he realized that the only girls he had seen were adults or babies - none ever his own age. _Come to think of it, I never heard a female use a word like 'awesome' before. I wonder where she comes from._

"Duh! I mean, I have never seen such a powerful display of elemental power before from someone my age; the root thing was just showing off, but the trees and especially the lake - oh the lake! - was _ingenious!_", she went on excitedly, "The other dragon was not so bad either, with that Comet Dash - I think that was the fastest I've ever seen! I should congratulate you two!", she paused, looking around for the fire dragon, "Speaking of which, where is he?"

Terrador came crashing into the present again, realizing what he was about to do before she interrupted him, "Oh no! I forgot! He is still in the water!"

The dragoness gasped, "You mean, is _that _him?!"

Terrador followed her outstretched paw, fearing the worst. He gasped, jumping into the slushy mud as he strained to reach the sinking dragon.

_I did not realize that draining the lake would create this sinkhole! He's almost underground! _

Straining, he forced the sand to push the fire dragon back up. _Oh please, please be breathing, please be breathing! _

He forced the sand to stop sucking the dragon in, and to make him float. Then he called vines down from the trees to pull him up.

"Look out! Beneath your feet!", shouted the dragoness urgently.

Terrador looked down, and saw that he was already knee deep in the mud, "Help me! I don't have any more power left!", he shouted in terror.

"Hold still!", shouted the dragoness, straining in an effort to mirror Terrador's actions earlier. _How in the ancestors' names did he do it?! _Nevertheless, she persevered, eyes shut tightly under the strain of keeping a steady stream of elemental energy flowing into the soil.

It must not be too much, which will cause the sand to be uncontrollable, but simultaneously, it must not be too little, thus lose its strength. The battle for balance was costing all of her concentration, and she was not paying any attention to exactly _where _Terrador was being rolled off her in rivulets, making its way into her eyes, making them feel as if someone was working tiny needles into them clumsily.

But still she kept at it... until she heard a voice say, "Um... that's enough, thank you."

Her eyes flew open at the closeness of the voice, and the proximity to Terrador made her gasp and spring backward in surprise.

"Are you alright?", he asked concernedly, reaching with his paws around her to catch her.

"Yeah I am fine, you?", she asked him briskly, her cheeks burning at the intimacy of their situation.

"I am fine, thanks to you", Terrador looked at his feet, "You saved my life."

"That's ok, don't mention it", stuttered the dragoness. "Umm... I am fine thank you!", she said pointedly, trying to look anywhere but at his face.

"Oh right, sorry!", Terrador muttered sheepishly, springing off her abruptly.

Awkwardly, the dragoness started towards the unconscious fire dragon, lying down beside him to examine him. "You know, for a friendly spar, the lake was a bit much, don't you think?"

Terrador sighed as he lied down on the other side of the fire dragon, "That was because it wasn't as friendly as it could have been."

"What do you mean?", the dragoness looked up curiously, her ear cocked.

"Well you see, he and I were having a minor disagreement before it escalated to what it was"

"Care to elaborate?"

"He bumped into me, and took offense at my genuine advice to him! Now stop badgering me about it! I saved him, didn't I?", Terrador looked away angrily.

"Come on now, that is not what happened, wasn't it?", the dragoness smiled reassuringly, her voice smooth and melodious.

Terrador looked into her smooth brown eyes and fell thrall to them, almost physically unable to deny her wishes. Taking a deep breath, Terrador began his story, "At my old school in Warfang, I was always bullied by them..."

The dragoness murmured sympathetically, "Oh, I am sorry."

"Don't be, it wasn't you fault!", Terrador laughed bitterly, "Anyway, the bullying was not your traditional pushing and shoving or even physical fights. No, it was much worse."

Terrador paused, emotion clogging up his words, "Obviously I have never gotten over this, even after all this time."

"What did they do?", she asked, getting up again.

"They excluded me from whatever anyone did, they called me rude names and worst of all... they spread horrible rumors about me... so terrible...", Terrador winced as he remembered it, but he would not succumb to crying - not in front of a dragoness.

"But come on! Surely no one believed them!", protested the dragoness, walking over to Terrador and lying by his side.

"If only that were true; once they said I practiced _bloedskande _with my _sister_!", muttered Terrador bitterly, anger making him drain the ground of water, "I don't even _have_ a sister!"

The dragoness lied her neck across Terrador's, and drew him towards her protectively, "Calm down now, remember that was a long time ago", she drew apart and looked into his eyes, "And with the power I saw today... I'd imagined that you put them in their place before long!"

Terrador felt confused at the dragoness, having never felt that way before. _The closest thing to this feeling was what I felt when my mother was still around... but this feels... distinctly different. _He smiled at her, "No, but I left that school behind... forever. Though sometimes I feel like I will never be rid of... _them._", he looked bitterly at the unconscious fire dragon, though this time his hatred was tempered by guilt.

The dragoness followed his gaze, and realized what must have happened. _Those incidents he talks about must have left a massive impact on him. And there were probably a lot more than he will ever tell me. My, what a mess! _She looked at the fire dragon thoughtfully. _The way he says 'them' is particularly hate-laden. I wonder if the bullies were always fire dragons? _She thought back to some personal incidents from her own time. _Yeah... they probably were. It is just like them to pick on the weaker element. I wonder if this dragon will ever get over this hate. Speaking of which, I never asked for his name, silly me!_

"I am sorry, but can you tell me your name? It is a bit hard to offer you advice when I don't even know your name!", asked the dragoness ruefully.

"Oh sorry, my name is Terrador", replied Terrador with another smile, "What's yours?"

"Natalie"

"Natalie... that's an interesting name, are you from beyond the Valley of Avalar?", asked Terrador curiously, "You don't have to answer if you don't want to, I mean, it sounds rather rude to ask you...", Terrador trailed off in embarrassment.

"You could say that", Natalie grinned, "But lets go back to you shall we?"

"What's to discuss? I was bullied by fire drag-", Terrador stopped abruptly.

Natalie smiled sympathetically, "So was I", she whispered.

"What?!", asked Terrador incredulously, unable to believe that this dragoness, who _praised _the fire dragon earlier, was bullied by those... by those... _monsters_.

Natalie was nodding," I _know _right?! I mean, how could _beautiful_, _pretty, _and oh-so-_fragile _old _me _be bullied?!", she laughed heartily at her own joke.

"Yes!", agreed Terrador absent mindedly. _I can't believe it! She was bullied as well! _

_"_It was a joke, Terrador", muttered Natalie with an awkward smile, "But it is nice to know someone thinks that!", she added, noticing Terrador's crestfallen look.

"Hehe, yeah!", Terrador tried to laugh it off goofily.

"I learnt to let go", she assured him gently, looking deep into his eyes, "Do you understand?"

"You mean... you can just let it go?", Terrador asked beseechingly, eyes lit up in wonderment.

"Well", Natalie squirmed uncomfortably, "Its not _that _easy, but the point is, I realized how long it has been and how much time I was wasting just lingering on that. You wouldn't believe how many days I would spend just focusing solely on memorizing comebacks for the occasional rude comment", she sighed tiredly, "It was all to vain really, as they had something new each time."

Now it was Terrador's turn to lie his head on top of Natalie protectively, "I understand."

Natalie laughed, "Of course you do! And why are you comforting me? _I _am meant to be comforting _you_!"

Smiling sadly, Terrador pulled away.

"Something else I realized, usually after I talked to some dragons - just random daily interaction mind you," she paused, looking up at Terrador's face seriously, "was that _I was turning into one of them_!"

Terrador gasped, pulling away from the two dragons abruptly, his chest heaving as he realized his suspicions.

Natalie stood up calmly, "You are too, huh?"

"Yes", muttered Terrador hollowly, the panic leaving him as he admitted his mistakes, "Yes, I am."

Natalie smiled reassuringly, "Come on now, _I _changed! _You _can change too!"

Terrador laughed bitterly, "Is it that easy?"

"It will be!", she stated firmly, then she stopped, looking down at the fire dragon with a smile, "Oops! He is stirring!", she squealed excitedly.

Guilt wrenched inside Terrador, almost making him vomit in discomfort.

"Calm down, now remember; say sorry!", added Natalie a little sarcastically.

Terrador could only nod, as the fire dragon got up laboriously a bit like some freaky animated carcass in some freaky pantomime.

"What? Where am I?", mumbled the dragon confusedly.

"Hi! My name is Natalie, and this is Terrador! We, th-", Natalie was interrupted when the fire dragon reached out with a paw to touch her cheek.

"Are you a messenger of the ancestors? Come to take me to a better place?", he asked in an alluring voice, looking deep into her eyes.

"Ha, that is very funny!", Natalie tried desperately to keep the blush off her face, as she tried to get this dragon to notice Terrador, who was looking strangely dark faced again. _Now what is his problem? _"Listen, I have someone who wants to talk to you!"

"Anything, my _anxo_", he promised at once, "Where is this dragon?"

Natalie giggled, pointing to Terrador, "Why there he is right there!"

Immediately, the fire dragon was on top of Terrador.

"NO!", shouted Natalie desperately, trying to drag the fire dragon off Terrador, "Terrador, fight back!"

"No!", Terrador shouted, then he shut his mouth, forcing his body to relax as the fire dragon pounded him repeatedly, not wincing when he slashed his wings, not emitting a sound when he made the sun start to fry him alive.

Eventually, the fire dragon snarled at him, "Why don't you fight back?" he punched Terrador in the stomach, "Why won't you defend yourself?", he punched Terrador in the face, "You were all too eager just before!", the dragon stopped, panting.

"I am not proud of what I did", Terrador mumbled out, his words almost incomprehensible over the swelling that has started on his face, "But I can only say sorry."

"Sorry?", the fire dragon paused, "_Sorry?!_"

"STOP FIGHTING!", shouted Natalie angrily, "Just talk, like _civilized dragons_!"

"I am sorry malady, but this dragon has gone too far!", the fire dragon didn't even look at Natalie as he said this, staring intently at the broken body of Terrador, "Insulting me without cause, then _attacking _me! I could have died in that infernal pit, so stubborn and so unrelenting was its grasp!"

"Oh please, what are you, a _book_?!", spat Natalie scornfully, rushing to Terrador's side at once, taking full advantage of the lull in the fighting, "Who do you think pulled you out?"

The fire dragon looked gob smacked for a second, before he muttered uncertainly, "Well, it was you wasn't it?"

"It most certainly was not!", declared Natalie vehemently, "Because Terrador right here, was the one that helped you! So much so that he was almost killed helping you!"

The fire dragon looked up sharply, "You aren't pulling my leg are you?"

"NO!", protested Natalie angrily, closing her eyes tightly in concentration. _Friends of my clan, forever watchful forever protecting, come to my aid once more and hear me! My new friend Terrador is hurt - will you shade him? _

The leaves of the thick forest canopy seemed to rustle as she asked this, then, as if magically, the branches above them started to interlink in more and more complex ways, eventually making an almost completely shady roof above Terrador.

_Thank you! _Thought Natalie fervently.

The fire dragon seemed frozen on the spot, and Natalie forgot all about him, focusing instead on the task at hand.

"Terrador? Terrador, can you hear me?", Natalie asked Terrador desperately, checking him over for any obvious signs of damage. _Wings seem to be ripped, but the veins in them are pretty thin, and there is already heavy clotting - there will not be much cause for concern there for now. His chest is bleeding profusely and the ribs may be exposed - though this is not broken -_ She looked away quickly, swallowing hard and trying not to gag

_I should probably work on that first, actually there are many sites of minor bleeding and shallow wounds but that seems to be the most serious. His jaw also seems dislocated - in fact most of his joints seem dislocated... my my Terrador, you really are not a close combat dragon are you? _Natalie thought almost absently as she started work on the massive gash across his hand.

Terrador groaned in response, his swollen eyelid fluttering open briefly.

_Good, he is conscious and breathing - his airway is not restricted. _

"Can you understand me?", asked Natalie almost absently, concentrating on forcing leaves to gather into a pile. She then forced them to strip themselves until only the fibers remained, and knit them magically into rough and coarse bandages. _Alright so they aren't first class, so what, they'll work! _She scowled to herself.

"Umphgmph", mumbled Terrador unintelligibly.

"Shh, just relax Terrador", reassured Natalie, distracted, as she plucked out some of the scales near the wound, "Sorry!", _I can't see any damage to the bone, and that guy's claws didn't seem long enough to reach the lungs. At least, I hope they didn't - I can't help him if they did. _She pressed the edges of the gash together as tightly as her could by pushing them together with her hands. That was when she realized... _Damn it, why can't I have an extra hand sometimes?! Oh wait... he can help!_

"Hey you! Can you help me bandage this wound?", she called to the fire dragon urgently, keeping the edges of the wound firmly sealed.

"Huh, _oh que_?!", jumped the fire dragon, startled. "Yes, _anxo_!", he cried immediately once he realized what Natalie wanted, running towards her side in zealous excitement.

"I want you to push the sides of the wound together, like I am, but make sure you do it firmly otherwise he may lose too much blood, understand? This is a major artery _you severed._" Natalie said tightly, still angry at what happened.

The fire dragon sniffed sharply, but didn't say anything, just meekly following Natalie's orders.

Seeing that he was not giving any trouble, Natalie set about bandaging the wound, seamlessly joining the ends of the bandage together after she finished. _There, that's done! Now to wake him up... Well he _is _conscious, but... this will be fun! _She grinned mischievously.

She concentrated hard again, calling particular plants to suddenly spring from the ground. Then she collected their leaves and seeds, mashing them together with her claws, before asking the fire dragon, "Can you please hold his mouth open?"

"At once, _meu anxo_", the fire dragon pried Terrador's mouth open easily, allowing Natalie to squeeze out a drop of yellow liquid from the pulp.

_Oh ancestors, what is _with _him?! Who does he think he is, some kind of medieval romantic?! _Thought Natalie, exasperated. Then she blushed. _Did I really think that?_

It touched Terrador's mouth lightly...

"ARGH! IT BURNS!", yelled Terrador as he sprang upright, before noticing the two dragons hunched over him in concern.

The two males stared at each other in the eye, neither of them willing to be the first to look away, both knowing exactly what is at stake.

"Oh please! For goodness's sake, can you stop already?!", shouted Natalie in exasperation.

The two males jumped, their concentration broken, scowling at each other, each blaming the other for the disturbance.

Finally, the fire dragon asked, "This _fermosa dama _was saying that you were the one that pulled me out - does she speak true?"

"Yes", said Terrador, "And I meant it when I said I was sorry."

"But pray tell, why did you instigate our struggle?", asked the fire dragon with a perplexed expression on his face.

_Sigh, I really don't want _him _to know... _Terrador fidgeted uncomfortably, "Well... lets just say that I have no idea."

Unable to bear the annoyance, Natalie stepped forward roughly, "Oh great ancestors, what he is _trying _to say, _handsome_ (!), is that he was bullied when he was young, which was why he couldn't stop himself from doing that to you! The reason why he chose _you _in particular, is that your kind was the ones that bullied him!", she finished, her chest heaving as she panted. _Oh crap, I don't think I was supposed to say that... _She remembered her little brother's reaction many moons ago when she tried to stop something similar and clamped her mouth shut firmly.

The fire dragon was so shocked that he didn't say anything about the fact that Natalie called him handsome, even if it was sarcastic.

_Natalie! Why did you tell him that?! _Terrador wanted the Earth to swallow him up, to just disappear. Embarrassment shone on his cheeks as his teacher's safe-guards went to work to stop the Earth from actually swallowing him. He tried to hide himself as much as he could without appearing blatantly uncomfortable, which wasn't much at all. _Oh please stop the pain!_

But what he heard was not a derisive laugh, never once was a joy present in the fire dragon's voice as he said softly, "I am sorry."

And then the fire dragon's entire demeanor changed, "Well well, I think we got off on the wrong foot! Where are my manners?", bowing theatrically, the fire dragon announced to a bemused Natalie and a confused Terrador: "_Meu anxo_, _meu amigo, _my name is Vermello."

He looked up, still with that strange theatrical flair, "May I be blessed with the knowledge of your name, _meu anxo_?"

Giggling girlishly, Natalie replied, "I don't know what you called me, but my name is Natalie. Pleased to meet you!"

Terrador felt something stir in him, a strange feeling akin to the anger he had toward Vermello, but of a different... _flavor. _Nevertheless, he tried to hide it, as Vermello was obviously trying to become friends, and Terrador really wanted to change his opinion of fire dragons. _I really need to sort this out soon, maybe I should ask Natalie herself? After all, I only felt this at her!_

"And may I know your name, _meu amigo_?", asked Vermello more seriously, but still with that hint of newfound friendliness.

"Terrador, pleased to meet you!", said Terrador confidently. _Yep, I don't know what happened, but something changed in this guy... I think I should respect that and I am pleased to be his friend._

* * *

END FLASHBACK

* * *

_Yes, that moment changed my view of fire dragons forever. I may have never known Ignitus if it wasn't for Vermello... _Terrador was struck by just how much his life would be different now if Vermello was not there.

As he strode towards the giant main doors, he stopped to examine the detailing. _But then... that was not where his influence ended, and that was not where we parted._

* * *

Meanwhile...

* * *

"Ugh! Spyro, wait up!", groaned Cynder painfully.

Spyro stopped at once, rushing back to her side, "Are you ok Cynder?! What can I do?!", he asked, terror clutching at his heart at the possibilities of what was happening to Cynder.

"I'm OK Spryo!", she yelled angrily, "just... tired", she muttered, panting.

_I don't what is wrong with Cynder... she has been acting like this for 8 weeks now. It started with the occasional bouts of lethargy, which became more and more common, then she became nauseous frequently and then the mood swings started. I had originally planned to leave this place and go farther away from Warfang, but because of her illness, we had no choice! _

Spryo looked at her worriedly, "Are you sure?"

"Yes Spryo!", she said in exasperation. "You don't have to patronize me, just... you don't have to be so fast and... leave me behind...", she sniffed sadly, tears starting to form on her eyes. "What will happen when I get old and weak? Will you leave me then?", she looked on the verge of outright crying.

_Oh here we go again... _"Come on now Cynder, the only reason why I do things so fast is that... is so that you don't have to do them! And I will never leave you behind Cynder as I love you! Besides... I will probably be much more tired and lethargic than you when _I _grow old!", Spyro chuckled, by now beyond bothering about these outbursts.

"Oh I love you so much Spryo! I don't know _why _I ever doubted you...", she trailed off, and her ridiculously ecstatic expression slowly morphed into a terrifyingly angry mask, much more reminiscent of her Terror of the Skies days, "_What do you mean "tired and lethargic"?!"_

_F #$. _"Oh did I say that? I meant... umm...", Spryo tried to think of something desperately. "Oh is it time already? I really need to go catch dinner my darling - deer; your favorite!", he said, backing off slowly.

"Get back here now, Spyro!", yelled Cynder. Then she stopped, contemplating dinner. Then her expression changed to a grotesque mask of distaste, "And _deer?! _That is all I have had since I was born! Get me something else... or... or...", her nostrils started smoking, "_you will be sorry." _She assured, with a smirk.

_And don't I know it! _"Yes my dear!", shouted Spyro quickly behind him as he flew away hurriedly.

_Oh that Spyro is so sweet! Changing his dinner orders so fast, all for me! How nice... how nice... how... nice... Wait a minute. Why was he so quick to leave? Is he seeing another dragoness?! _"SPYRO!"

The shockwave from her subsequent fear wave made all the woodland animals around her cave flee in terror.

**Well there you have it chapter 6 part 1 is finished. Please review.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello everyone who reads this chapter. first of all i have a new co-author named gr4n1t3 th3 dra4gon.**

**Disclaimer: i do not own anything that has to do with the Spyro franchise. Vermello belongs to me, Natlie belnogs to XxTheSomeOnexX, and Sear belongs to gr4n1t3 th3 dr4gon.**

After his brief flashback of when he and Vermello were young, Terrador followed Vermello and Volteer to the chart room. Once he entered the room he saw Vermello practically throwing every map and chart in the room at Volteer.

"Hurry up and find it!" Vermello shouted.

"I am looking as fast as I can but it will take some time to find it, and it will take even longer if you don't stop pestering me." Said Volteer.

"Just hurry up and get it done." said Vermello as he stormed out of the room.

Terrador just stared at Volteer with a puzzled look before asking, "Why are you helping him find Spyro and Cynder?"

"Because he is the fire guardian, there for he is our leader."

"But do you actually believe that Spyro and Cynder would actually allow themselves to be corrupted?"

"To be fair Terrador, we barely know those younglings. We didn't really spend much time with them outside of training to get to know them personally." stated Volteer.

"But then why would they save the world only to just destroy it themselves?" asked Terrador.

"Maybe they don't want to destroy this world but instead they want to rule over it".

"Why can't you see that Spyro and Cynder are not a threat to the dragon kind!?" shouted Terrador.

Volteer let out a sigh before saying "Listen Terrador, I know it is hard to believe that Spyro and Cynder are evil, but just look at the facts. Not only has Spyro confirmed that he has been corrupted, but I believe that Spyro has always been naturally violent. Didn't you find it strange that he just accepted the fact that he has to fight hundreds of apes, Cynder and Malefor and not once questioned it? And we don't even know that Cynder isn't under Malefor's influence again."

"Malefor is dead, Spyro and Cynder said so themselves." said Terrador angrily as he starts to get frustrated at Volteer.

"But how do we know that his is dead?"

"Because after the world started to fall apart, a purple light suddenly appeared and the world then put itself back together, so unless Malefor had a change of heart he is most likely dead."

"But how can we tell that Spyro and Cynder were the ones to fix the world?" asked Volteer. Terrador gave Volteer a confused look. "What if we were wrong about the destroyer? What if it was meant to bring a new age and not the end of this world?"

"So that is it. What if?" said Terrador darkly. "You are asking whether or not Spyro and Cynder are evil, and want to enslave the dragon race on a what if? How stupid are you?" Volteer turned his head, simply ignoring Terrador's words.

"Look!" Terrador shouted. "Volteer, I know that the sudden death of Ignitus still weighs heavy on your heart, but you are letting it blind you to what is in front of you."

"What if Spyro becomes like Malefor? Like Malefor, he was nice and kind to others and even helped them but then Malefor started to thirst for power and we did nothing to stop it. Now look what has happened because of this. Most of the dragon race is gone because we did nothing. I don't know about you but I don't want that to happen again. So if you will excuse me, I need to find Vermello."

Terrador said not a single thing as Volteer picked up one of the maps and left the chart room. He started to grind his teeth together and his right eye began to twitch in frustration. He was so mad in fact that he was about to unleash an earth fury in the tiny room when a mole walked into his view. Not wonting to harm the innocent mole he decided to save his anger for later.

"Are you Terrador?" asked the mole.

"Yes I am and who might you be?"

"My name is Verruga. Master Vermello has recently appointed me to be the new adviser. Master Vermello also wishes to speak with you on the balcony down the hall".

"Thank you Verrga, you are dismissed."

Verrga gave Terrador a bow and left the room. Terrador then gave a frustrated sigh before heading towards the balcony. Just as Verrga had said Vermello was on the balcony and was talking to Volteer.

"So it will be about a three day trip to reach Valadar if we fly towards the west." said Volteer as he showed Vermello the map.

"Thank you Volteer you have been a big help." said Vermello as he noticed Terrador walking onto the balcony. "Now if you would be so kind and give me and Terrador some privacy?"

After nodding his head, Volteer left the two guardians alone. Once Volteer left, Terrador asked "So what did you want from me?"

"Now that we have found where Spyro and Cynder are hiding I have to ask you a question. Would you be so kind and come along with me and a few other dragons and help kill the traitors?"

"I am sorry but the answer is no. In fact I think that you are a moron for even thinking of hunting Spyro and Cynder down in the first place."

"I am just doing my job as guardian and protection the citizens of this city."

"From what?" asked Terrador.

"From Spyro and Cynder of course."

"But why are you doing this? They have done nothing to harm you or this city."

"That is only partially true. Spyro has done nothing wrong yet to this city, but he has admitted to being corrupted so there is a possibility of an attack from him. Cynder on the other paw is a completely different story. If you don't recall she is the reason most of the dragon population is dead."

"Cynder was being controlled by Malefor the entire time. She had no control over her own actions" said Terrador while raising his voice.

"But tell me how can you tell that she was under his control? The only proof that you have is her word."

Terrador didn't say anything in response to this, but just started at Vermello with his hate filled eyes.

Verrmello could tell that Terrador was still not convinced. "Tell me Terrador did you ever look into Cynders eyes when she was corrupted?"

"Yes in fact I have, when she captured me. Why do you ask?"

"What did you see in them?"

"All I saw was fear and sorrow."

"Really, that is all that you saw? When I looked into her eyes all I could see was joy and happiness."

"And tell me when per say did this happen?" asked Terrador.

Vermello didn't answer him. He took his gaze off of Terrador and started to stare into the night sky, as if he was looking for something, or someone. He let out a sigh before saying, "I first looked into that monsters eyes 26 years ago when the war first started."

***** flash back*****

In the city of Warfang, there have been rumor that Malefor was going to return and bring war with him. Not wanting to take any chances, the dragon population decided to form a small army of dragons and moles who would patrol the city walls and kept look out for anything that would endanger the civilians. Among those dragons was Vermello. It had been 17 years since Terrador, himself, and Natlie first met, and over that period of time, Vermello asked Natlie to be his mate. To his pleaser she agreed and gave here four metal wrist bracelets, a metal tail bracelet, and a metal chocker. This was a sign that she was his mate. Terrador was not happy at first seeing this as he liked her as well, but he soon got over it. On that fateful day, Vermello was resting on the temple's rooftops glad that Natlie accepted him to be her mate. He then squinted his eyes past the Warfang walls and spotted a large black mass in the distance, so he called a mole to inspect the object. The mole took out a pair of binoculars and peered through them. When he identified the mass he started to shake in fear.

"Well what is it?" asked Vermello.

The mole took a deep breath trying to calm him self down before saying "It is an army of armed apes, and it looks like they are going to attack."

After hearing this Vermello quickly ran towards a gong and hit it three times with his tail, signaling the citizens of Warfang that they were under attack. Panic started to fly through out all of Warfang as dragons and moles started running left and right. After looking at the panic filled town, Vermello and several other dragons and moles quickly ran towards the armory to form a battle plan. Once inside the armory, Vermello saw the leader of the small army, General Sear. The dragon was a fire dragon, just like Vermello himself, but he was orange. Sear had a thick, red mane coming from the top of his head down to his lower neck and two dark red horns curving down the back of his head. His tail-blade was in the shape of a flame with the tip of the flames having the sharpest touch. After a quick discussion of what was happening General Sear came up with the plan of splitting everyone into two teams. One of the two teams was assigned to attack the apes head on while the other team was to sneak around and ambush them from behind. Both Sear and Vermello were assigned the first group. Once every one was all geared up and ready to go, they took off to fight the enemy. Coming to a stop at Warfang's entrance wall, Sear and Vermello waited for the enemy to confront them while the rest of the dragons flew ahead in position of a sneak attack.

"You ready?" Sear asks Vermello. Fear could be seen in Vermello's eyes, for he couldn't imagine the trouble Natlie could be in. But at the same time, he had a serious expression on his face. With mixed emotions exploding in his head, all Vermello did was nod in response. "Good." Sear noticed the stern look on Vermello's face. "If you don't know, I'm also risking to loose my mate." Vermello slightly looked up at Sear. "It's okay Vermello, we can get through this." Vermello glanced back at him, giving a warm smile and a nod of understanding. Sear gave the same warm smile back then looked straight at the Warfang gates, waiting for Malefor's army to attack.

Explosions started going off just outside the cities boundaries. You could practically feel Malefor's army closing in of the city if Warfang. Boom...Boom...Boom...BANG! One of the front gates give in and fall down with a thud allowing a swarm of apes to race in. Sear and Vermello stand their ground waiting for the right moment to attack. Armed apes with grenades, swords, and knives are running straight towards them, not even stopping. The two dragons are still waiting...and waiting...and waiting, until an ape's blade comes mere inches from Sear's snout. At that point, Vermello and Sear simultaneously use their fire fury attacks completely incinerating all the apes inside of the city. The fury was so powerful, it shook the ground causing the other gate to tumble backwards, instantly crushing some more apes. Out of nowhere, several dragons surrounded the rest of the apes and started to attack. Their ambush, according to their plan, was a success. Vermello smiled as victory seemed close at hand, when suddenly he heard Sear call his name. As he turned around to face Sear he saw that Warfang was engulfed in flames.

"Vermello I need you along with several other dragons to head back to Warfang." said Sear.

"How did this happen?!"

"A group of apes somehow sneaked past us and snuck inside, now would you please hurry there are innocent dragons and moles dying in there!"

Vermello's heart skipped a beat when he heard this fearing that Natlie was being killed by an ape. He then quickly gathered up several dragons and headed back to Warfang. Once in the city, Vermello quickly started searching for Natlie. After about 20 minutes of searching he spotted her in the distance. Once he caught up to her he asked, "Are you alright, has anyone hurt you?"

"No I'm fine." replied Natlie.

The two dragons then quickly made there way through Warfang trying to find a safe place for Natlie to hide when suddenly a large black figure jumped out of the shadows and pounced onto Vermello. Vermello was quickly able to kick his attacker off of him and threw it several feet from him. While it started to stand back up he noticed that it was a black dragoness with six horns coming out of the back of her head, and had a maroon underbelly and wing membranes. Her eyes were emerald green and her tail-blade was shaped like a silver crescent moon. Her sinister smile shown on her lips told Vermello that she was about to attack him.

"Natlie I need you to go find a hiding place while I deal with her." Vermello said glaring at the other black dragoness. Natlie nodded and ran off.

"Pity there won't be anywhere for her to hide." The black dragoness says with a grin.

"Just shut up and fight..." before Vermello can finish, the dragoness replies spitting a ball of acid at his face. In a split second, he dodged the attack and powered his fireball. Opening his maw, he lets out a mass of fire hurling towards the dragoness. She simply creates a shadow clone in replace of her normal self and reforms in front of Vermello. From there she pounces on top of Vermello pinning him to the ground and then plunged her sharp tail blade into his chest. Luckily for him she just barley scraped his heart.

Smiling at her victory, the dragoness then said, "Now were did that dragoness run off to?"

"Don't you dare lay a single paw on her!" yelled Vermello.

The dragoness only smiled and gave Vermello a solid kick to his ribs, breaking a few of them. Pain started arousing from Vermello as his two paws clutched his now broken and bleeding chest. The dragoness stood up, then left to search for Natlie.

Vermello started to cry as the thought of his mate dying, when suddenly he felt a paw on his chest. He looked up and saw that Natlie was the one touching him as she started to heal his wounds.

"What...are you still doing here...it's too...dangerous." said Vermello in between coughs as his blood slowly started to fill his lungs.

"You should know by now that I would never leave you. I do lov…" said Natlie before being cut off by a sharp pain running through her body. Vermello watched in horror as the black dragoness had came back and used her tail blade to stab Natlie through her throat.

Vermello was show shocked at what happened before him that he could barely hear the black dragoness say in a childish voice, "Foooound yoooou". Seeing that Natlie was still parsley alive the black dragoness decided to finish the job, retracted her tail from Natlie's neck and swiftly ran it through her skull, killing her instantly. Natlie's body fell to the ground with a thud and the black dragoness started to laugh evilly. Vermello could only lay there as he took in the sight of his dead mate in front of him. Feeling himself starting to black out from both blood loss and shock, he knew he had to ask the dragoness one question.

"You monster, WHO ARE YOU?!"

The black dragoness gave him a toothy grin before lowering here head to his eye level and said "My name is Cynder and...Thanks for the compliment."

Cynder was just about to leave Vermello to die when she saw the metal jewelry Natlie was wearing. "My, my. What beautiful jewelry you've got there, you wouldn't mind if I borrow them for a bit would you?" asked Cynder to Natlie's dead body. Getting no replay, Cynder removed the chocker, and bracelets from her and placed them on herself. "A little big for me but I can just have them reshaped". Cynder finally walked off, laughing in the far distance. That was the last thing Vermello heard that day before blacking out and woke up the following day.

*****end of flashback*****

Tears started to form in Vermello's eyes as he finished his story. "Now tell me Terrador," started Vermello. "Can you still say that Cynder is a kind and genial soul?"

Terrador thought back to that day. He remember losing a few friends himself and attending their funerals. He then said, "I still don't agree with the idea of killing Spyro or Cynder...but if you are willing to only take them into custody until we are curtain that they won't harm anyone, then I guess I will help you."

"Thank you Terrador. Now if you will excuse me, I must get some sleep. I would recommend getting some yourself soon Terrador, we are leaving early in the morning tomorrow." Tears were still falling to the ground as he left the room, slamming the door shut behind him...remembering his fearful past.

***Spyro and Cynder prov***

After 16 minutes of waiting Spyro came limping back to his and Cynders cave with a bear on his back as he struggled to carry Cynders dinner. Not his and Cynders dinner to Spyro's sorrow seeing as Cynder has been eating more and more food each day. Spyro has also taken notice that Cynder was starting to get a little fat. Spyro figured that she was very stressed from all the resent events and was using food as relief.

"It is about time you showed up, yelled Cynder. Did you have fun with your other mate"?

Spyro sighed as he knew he had to explain to Cynder for the 12th time that day, that he wasn't cheating on her, but unknown to him and Cynder that there was a pair of eyes watching him as he entered the cave.

**So what did you guys think of this chapter? If you liked it then please tell me. If you didn't like it then please review this story telling me what needs to be improved. i would like to say sorry to XxTheSomeOnexX for what happend to Natlie but this needed to happen. please don't kill me.**


	7. Chapter 7

**We are finally done! (Dramatic applause) It took us a while, but after a long time of thinking, and thinking, and thinking, we were able to finish! We've lost a handful few men back there due to over thinking, fried brains, and dehydration, but that just made us stronger as partners! Anyway, I am sorry that it took me and gr4n1t3 th3 dr4g0n so long to post this chapter but we will try to post the next one as soon as possible. Most of the credit for this chapter goes to gr4n1t3 th3 dr4g0n.**

* * *

Spyro woke early the next morning to the sounds of birds chirping outside of the cave. His head was still pounding from Cynder yelling at him 'till midnight. He didn't know how much more he could take. He still loved Cynder and would gladly give his life for her, but there is something happening to her. Something that she is either not telling him about or she has no clue what is actually going on. Speaking of Cynder, Spyro moved his gaze to his magnificent mate that slept next to him. As he started to examine her breath taking figure, he couldn't help but stare at her stomach. Ever since they officially became mates, Cynder has become more and more grouchy, had random mood swings, and had an appetite that would match that of several dragons.

"What ever is happening to you, I hope that you will turn out alright in the end." whispered Spyro. He then heard Cynders stomach start to moan for more food. Spyro knew he had to find some food before she woke up or else she would start to yell at him about how he doesn't love her any more, or something like that.

As slowly and quietly as possible he made his way to the mouth of the cave. Once outside, he started to stretch out all his limbs, like a cat would every morning. After Spyro finished stretching he spotted a white-tailed deer snacking on some grass in a nearby prairie. Moving quick to his feet, he crouched behind a bush in a pouncing position, being ever so silent that you could hear branches swaying from the trees. He counted in his head. "_One...two...three_." Without making a sound, he jumped on the deer's back wrestling it to the ground. Using his razor sharp teeth, he snapped at the deer's neck instantly killing it.

Spyro dragged the lifeless corpse back to the cave, resting it on the ground where Cynder slept. Thinking about falling asleep, he lied down next to Cynder, shutting his eyes, thinking about the guardians, the dragons in Warfang...actually, everyone in Warfang.

"_Why would they betray us like that_?" Spyro thought, the question ringing in his head, with no one answering him. Things fell dead silent for a moment or two when suddenly a loud _SNAP_ echoes throughout cave. Spyro's head jolts up from the ground after hearing what sounded like the snapping of a twig. He stood up from his resting spot and silently walked to the cave's entrance. While outside, Spyro scanned the trees and the bushes, trying to find the cause of the disturbance.

Unknown to Spyro, there was a pair of amethyst eyes staring down the purple dragon. They belonged to a shadowy figure who was lurking in the bushes nearby the cave. Without a sound, the figure sends a beam of light in the direction of Spyro. However Spyro notices the flash and dives out of the beams path, just barely missing him. His head shot up in the direction of the attack to find a dragon standing under the shade. As it walked into the sunlight, the sun's beams reflected off of it's scales and into Spyro eyes, blinding him for a second or two. After adjusting to the light, he noticed it was a dragoness who confronted him. She had a slender body with two horns coming from the front of her head forward, almost resembling a bull. There were purple stripes going horizontally across her pure white scales like it was part of a religious act. She didn't look too athletic, but her amethyst eyes showed that she wasn't going to back down that easily.

The two dragons stood face-to-face, staring each other down, waiting for their opponents next move. Spyro broke the silence and sent a fireball in the intruder's direction. The dragoness gracefully sidesteps and avoids the attack like it never even happened. She then charged at the purple dragon and her horns just catches his leg as he tried to barrel roll out of harms way. The purple dragon winced for a second as he put pressure on his back leg, the one that was cut from the attack. Noticing Spyro's leg condition, the dragoness charged at him again. This time Spyro was anticipating the attack. Waiting until the dragoness was a few feet from him, Spyro jumped up and using the momentum of his wings, did a back flip and kicked the dragoness in the face, sending her into a nearby tree. He landed gracefully on his feet and looked up to see the intruder clutching her skull, as it started to bleed profusely. She then spoke.

"You think you have what it takes to try to kill a master of Ju-jitsu? This is only a scratch compared to what I'm going to do to you!"

"Who the hell are you?!" yells Spyro. The white dragoness only chuckles before replying with a beam of light that connected with Spyro's chest forcing him on his backside. As soon as he stood up, the dragoness connected an uppercut to his chin sending him vertically in mid-air. Before Spyro's body could touch the ground, the dragoness gives him a kick to the chin sending him back in the air. The purple dragon landed on his back with a thud and in excruciating pain. A loud, "Ahhhh!" came from Spyro.

The white dragoness walked over to Spyro, bent down to his ear and whispered, "I believe you're coming with me."

"Wh-where?" Is all that Spyro could muster. The white dragoness just grinned and stared at her opponent, praising her victory, but just as she stood up, she was blindsided by someone. The attack wasn't strong enough to injure her so the dragoness shoved off the attacker.

The white dragoness turned her focus to the direction behind her and she laid her eyes on Cynder. She began to analyze the young dragoness and took into account that she was acting very strange. The dragoness noticed that Cynder was panting as if she used all of her strength in that one tiny attack, and that she looked like she was in a great amount of pain. The white dragoness then notice Cynders round belly. Putting two and two together, her eyes widen as she figured out what was wrong with Cynder.

"_I need to restrain her soon or else she might do something she will regret_." thought the white dragoness. Before she knew it Cynder began to charge at the white dragoness.

The white dragoness easily moved out of the way of Cynders attack and then said, "I need you to remain still or you might damage it."

"What are you talking ab..." started Cynder before a massive wave of pain erupted through her body. Cynder tried to remain standing but the pain was to great and her legs fell out from under her, as she made a loud scream of pain.

Upon hearing Cynders screams of pain Spyro limped as quickly as possible over to Cynder. Once he reached her he began searching her body trying to find the source of her agony. When he didn't find a single scratch on her Spyro glared at the white dragoness and almost yells "Wh-what did you do to her?!" as his scales slowly darkened.

"I haven't done a single thing to her, now I need you to move out of the way so I can help her." said the white dragoness.

"You are not coming anywhere near her." said Spyro as his eyes starting to dilate.

"Please move out of the way or else both herself and the egg might die." pleaded the white dragoness.

"What are you talking about, what egg?!" asked Spyro as the corruption nearly consumed his entire body.

"THE EGG SHE IS ABOUT TO LAY!" shouted the white dragoness.

Upon hearing this Spyro reverted back to his normal self. He began to think if what she said was true. Spyro didn't know much about child birth but from what he read in the library at the temple he was able to conclude that the dragoness was right.

Cynder was pregnant and is about to lay their egg.

Spyro mentally slapped himself for not putting two and two together before he started to sway back and forth. The reality of him and Cynder becoming parent hit him like a ton of bricks. He backed away from Cynder, his body feeling like lead, his head feeling light, and his feet trembling, before darkness.

After a few hours later Spyro began to wake up. The first thing he saw was Cynders beautiful face. He slowly got up with his eyes half shut, not remembering any of the recent events. He felt something was wrong so he began to scan the area around him. He then noticed the white dragoness sitting a few feet away. Spyro quickly took a fighting stance as he remembers being attacked by her. Before Spyro could even speak, Cynder used the blunt side of her tail blade to smack Spyro in the back of his head.

"Ow, what was that for?" asked Spyro as he turned his gaze back to Cynder.

"THAT was for falling asleep when I needed you." said Cynder angrily, but in a joking manner.

"What are you talking about?" asked Spyro before noticing the dragon egg between Cynders front paws. Spyro once again mentally slapped himself as the rest of his memory of the recent events returned to him. Cynder then proceeded to slap him in he back of his head with her tail again.

"Sorry." was all Spyro said before moving close to Cynder so he could get a closer look at their egg. Upon further examination of the egg Spyro noticed that it was a pure white egg with a single gold band that ran diagonal across it's shell.

"So this is our egg, its beautiful!" said Spyro cheerfully.

Cynder could only smile at Spyro's comment and started to nuzzle him. Spyro then started to nuzzle Cynder. Then a question popped into Spyro's head. As he started to turn and face the white dragoness he draped a wing over Cynder and then asked "Why did you attack us and then help us?"

"I am truly sorry for attacking you, I thought you were trying to steal my home, by the way my name is Dawn."

"Wait if this was your home then why did you leave it?" asked Cynder.

"Well you see, when the war started I was one of the few 'dragon doctors' that would help the moles and cheetahs heal others wounded by either you, when you were the Terror of the Skies, or from apes. Once Spyro defeated you and brought you back to the temple I left and started to look for a home. Then once the planet started to fix itself after it nearly fell apart I left to see if any one needed help at Warfang."

"Then why did you help Cynder lay our egg? You must of heard all of those rumors about us?" asked Spyro.

"The thing is that I was planning to take you both back to Warfang and see you both put to justice, but If I do that then your egg would end up being abandoned...and I've seen to many eggs turn out like that during the war. To even think of someone so close, to see this world only, to have there life ending because there parents died or had to leave them..." she sniffed "is so, so sad." As Dawn ended, tears started to well up in her eyes.

"Then what do you plan on doing with us?" asked Cynder.

"Well if you want you can stay in my cave for a while longer, is it after all the least I can do for you two after I attacked you."

"Thanks that truly means a lot to us." said Spyro.

The three dragons then began to make their way to the cave. Once inside Dawn asked "If you two wouldn't mind, could you tell me your side of the story? You know, of this war?"

"Sure, let me just make a fire real quick." said Spyro as he began making a campfire to help keep there egg warm. Once Spryo was done preparing the fire, Cynder gently placed the egg on the ground and lit the pile of sticks using her shadow breath. Although the flames were dark purple, it was still heat to keep all three of the dragons and the egg warm. Spyro then began his story from when he was found by his adopted parents, to the moment both he and Cynder defeated Malefor. Spyro and Cynder started to have fun while they started to take a trip down memory lane and for the first time in what seemed like forever, they finally felt at peace. Sadly, their peace was not going to last long as the most painful decision, for both Spyro and Cynder, drew closer to reality.

**So there you have it. Again I am sorry for the long wait for this chapter. For everyone who read the previous chapter and want able to review it then please put the review for that chapter in this one. I would also like to give a quick shout out to XxTheSomeOnexX for helping me out when I freaking out about last chapters lack of reviews. Any way, what do you guy think this painful decision will be, please tell me what you think it will be in the review (do know that I will not tell you, you will have to read the next chapter to find out). Till next time.**


	8. Chapter 8

**ok here is the next chapter. im sorry for the long wait. I would also like to apologise to every one. after taking a look at this chapter, I have noticed it was half-assed. this is not gr4n1t3 th3 dr4g0n fault, but mine. so I am sorry if this chapter is not as good as the others.**

It has been two days since Cynder laid her and Spyro's egg. The sun was shining and the birds were singing. Spyro's eyes slowly open as a ray of light touched his face. After his eyes adjusted to the light, he stood up and started to stretch. Afterwards he looked at Cynder who was cradling their egg in between her paws. Spyro couldn't help but smile at the sight in front of him, but the smile soon turned into a look of panic as he started to think about everything that could go wrong with their child.

"Don't worry I'm sure that you both will be great parents." said Dawn coming into the caves entrance, surprising Spyro. "Oh, sorry for startling you."

"It's alright, I just cant stop thinking that something bad is going to happen, and that it has to do with our egg." said Spyro.

"What could passably go wrong? Not only does no one know where you guys are hiding, but you also have me to help you if something were to happen. There's no need to worry about it." Dawn's voice sounding clear and honest.

"If you don't mind me asking, why are you helping us?" asked Spyro. "It's not that I'm not grateful and all, but you have done so much for us. You given us a home, food, and now protection so I have to ask, why are you being so kind to us?"

Dawn glanced at Cynder before saying in a quiet voice, "How about you go get some breakfast, and I will tell both you and Cynder when she wakes up."

"Why can't you just tell me now?" asked Spyro.

"Because it mostly has to do with Cynder ." said Dawn.

"Why is something wrong with her?" asked Spyro with panic in his voice.

"No, not at all." Replied Dawn. "Everything is fine. It is just important that she hears what I have to say, that's all." said Dawn.

Figuring he couldn't convince her to change her mind, Spyro flew out of the cave in search of some food. A few hours later, Spyro came back with a deer in his maw and noticed that Cynder was awake.

"Good morning Spyro." said Cynder who was definitely in a good mood.

"Good morning to you as well." said Spyro dropping the deer by his side. "Did anything happen while I was away?"

"Nothing much." said Cynder.

The three of them sat quietly while they ate their food. After they were finished with breakfast, Dawn started to speak. "Well now that we finished eating, I can begin my story."

Spyro noticed the confused look on Cynder's face and said, "I asked Dawn to tell us why she has been helping us these last couple of days and she told me that she would tell us when you woke up."

Dawn then started her story. "It all started when I was about your age, when my brother Dusk fell ill. At the time we lived very far away from Warfang, so it took us a while to get him to a hospital. By the time we got him to the hospital, the doctor told us that it was too late for him, and that he didn't have much time left." Dawn's face suddenly turned sad and a tear leaked from her eye. She wiped it up before continuing.

"I can still remember the look on my parents face when they heard this. All I could do is just sit there, in his bed, and watch him die. I felt so...so, useless. After a few hours, I watched him take the last of his breaths. When the doctor came into the room to announce his death, I felt so helpless. I even started to blame myself for his death because I couldn't do anything to help him, but after a while I was able to forgive myself. That was when I decided I wanted to help any one in need of help regardless of their background from that day forward." Dawn then looked up at the two dragons and smiled before she continued.

"But that is not the only reason I am helping the both of you. You see a long time ago I used to have a mate of my own, but he died during the war. Before the war started though, I …" started Dawn before a fire ball interrupted her as it shot past her head.

The three dragons looked in the direction the fireball came from and to there surprise there stood Vermello at the mouth of the cave alongside Terrador, and three other dragons. "So this is were you have been hiding." said Vermello. Thinking quickly, Spyro created a wave of earth and pushed Terrador, Vermello, and all of his men away from the cave.

"Cynder, I need you to run away as fast as you can away from here, and take your egg with you. Spyro and I will keep them distracted." said Dawn.

"You better make it out of hear alive Spyro" said Cynder with worry in her voice

"Don't worry, I will make sure that I come back alive, I will meet you a few miles out to the south of here, understood?"

After a quick nod Cynder grabbed their egg and shot a ball of poison at the roof of the cave. After the poison melted away the rock showing the outside, Cynder flew out of the cave, still fearing that Spyro wont survive. Spyro and Dawn then ran outside the cave to fight Vermello and the rest of his men.

The two dragons stepped outside and looked up to find Terrador, being accompanied by three other adult dragons. One of them was a poison dragon with forest green scales. Another was a black shadow dragon. Finally, there was an orange fire dragon with a thick, red mane coming from the top of his head down to his lower neck and two dark red horns curving down the back of his head. His tail-blade was in the shape of a flame with the tip of the flames having the sharpest touch.

After scanning the dragons, Spyro noticed someone was missing. "Wait. Where's Vermello?"

"Never mind him." Interrupted Dawn. "We have others to worry about." She then shot a small beam of light at the shadow dragon making contact with his chest. He was then sent into a tree, quickly losing his conscience.

Before they could attack again, the poison dragon shot three balls of poison at Spyro and Dawn. The two dove in separate directions, dodging each of the poison dragon's attacks. Spyro retaliated by firing two earth rockets at the three remaining dragons. The rocket managed to connect with the poison dragon's forehead, sending him on his backside and unconscious. The other hit Terrador in the leg and he immediately fell to the ground, and it seemed as if he intentionally got himself hit.

After seeing his three downed companions, the fire dragon charged Dawn at full speed. She did the same in return and the dragons soon came to a halt just as their heads connected with each other. Even though Dawn was knocked back a little bit, she held her ground. Seeing his opportunity to take advantage of the mini battle, the fire dragon leg tripped Dawn and pinned her to the ground. Dawn tried to break free of his grip but failed to do so. The fire dragon snickered as a faint red glow formed at his maw. If she waited any longer to defend herself, she'd be burnt to a crisp in an instant. Thinking quickly, Dawn managed to loosen the fire dragons grip on her right arm. She then punched him square in the face, just before he could torch her causing a bright flash and a miniature explosion that came from the fire dragons maw that created a large cloud of smoke.

once the smoke cleared, Spyro could see two dragons lying on their backsides. He rushed over to the dragon nearest to him to see Dawn breathing heavily.

"Are you alright?" Spyro asked, with concern for the white dragoness.

"Yes...I'm fine...thanks." Replied Dawn between breaths.

"What was that!? I mean, the explosion!?" Spyro almost yelled. After sitting up and a few seconds of catching her breath, she explained herself.

"A message to that dragon to not mess with a female dragoness." Dawn stated with a smirk, receiving one back from the purple dragon. After helping the dragoness up to her feet, there was a loud ear-piercing scream. Spyro then turned his focus to a fire dragon standing behind him. The blood in his veins froze as he saw Vermello holding his egg in one paw with Cynder trapped in the other with his tail-blade at her throat.

"CYNDER!" Spyro screamed, his scaled slightly darkening. "YOU GET YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF OF HER AND MY EGG OR I'LL..."

"Or you'll what, Spyro?" Vermello blatantly interrupted the purple dragon. "Now, now. We don't need anyone getting hurt here, do we? Now if you would be so kind, come with me to Warfang to be put behind bars or say goodbye to your mate and egg." said Vermello with a taunting grin.

"Vermello what are you doing?" asked Terrador. You promised that you wouldn't kill any of them."

"Look around you Terrador, Spyro and this other dragoness were able to take out some of our finest warriors with ease. There's no other way." said Vermello as he took his eyes off of Spyro and Dawn and focused on Terrador.

seeing this small opportunity Dawn dove into some near by bushes and began to sneak towards Vermello.

not seeing what Dawn was doing, Spyro decided to comply with Vermello's demand. just has Spyro about to fly off towards Warfang with Vermello and Terrador, Dawn jumped out from behind some trees and rammed into Vermello's chest with her horns. The attack was able push Vermello off of Cynder and her egg. Dawn then quickly picked up the egg and ran over to Spyro.

"Spyro I need you to take Cynder and your egg out of here, I will hold them off."

"But what about you?" said Cynder, questioning the white dragoness.

"Don't worry about me, I think I can handle myself." Said Dawn in a determined voice.

With no other choice Spyro grabbed there egg and took off, with Cynder close behind. Vermello tried to hit them with a fire ball but Dawn blocked it. Once Spyro and Cynder were out of sight Vermello started to shout, "Look what you've done! You do know we can have you executed for aiding criminals, right!" Dawn smiled and could not help but chuckle. "Now what's so funny" asked Vermello. Dawn never answered Vermello's question and instead charged towards him.

(Spyro and Cynder POV)

After a few hours worth of flying, they decided to land. When they landed Cynder started to burst into tears. Spyro pulled her into a hug, as he started to cry as well.

Once they stopped crying, Cynder asked in whimpering voice, "What are we to do now?"

"Well as much as it pains me to say it, we need to find a place to leave our egg." said Spyro.

"Wait what are you talking about" asked Cynder with panic in her voice

"You saw what Vermello is willing to do to capture us, and who knows what he might do to Dawn if she doesn't make it. We need to find a place to hide our egg from him." said Spyro

"Then we will hide like we have done before" said Cynder as tears started to form I her eyes.

"But we already tried that and look what happened. How long until they find us again, and if they do find us again, then what then? Do we run again. And what if he got his paws on our egg again? He will more then likely destroy it".

"But who would take care of our egg? Every one hates us." said Cynder as she started to cry again.

"There is only one person who I can trust to take care of our egg. Come on we need to get going before night fall." said Spyro

"But were are we going?" asked Cynder.

"Home."

**ok so there you have it. again i'm sorry if it was terrible and I promise the next chapter will be better. also I need to know. seeing as this story is a remastered version of my first story Will There be Light at the End of the Tunnel, should I have a similar ending or a completely different ending. this is very important for It will effect future chapters so please tell me in your review what you think. me and gr4n1t3 th3 dr4g0n will try and post the next chapter soon but seeing as school is coming up it might take longer then it usually does.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hello everyone. Here is the next chapter to this story. I would like to thank Troygroomes** **for all of his help in this chapter, and I would also like to thank my co-author gr4n1t3 th3 dr4gon**. **I wouldn't have been able to finish this chapter if it wasn't for the both of you. **

It took some time but after a few hours of constant flight, Spyro and Cynder landed in front of the Swamp.

"Why did we come here?" asked Cynder as she started to question Spyro's sanity.

"Remember when I told you that I was raised by dragonflies?" asked Spyro as he placed their egg in between his paws. After getting a nod from Cynder, he continued "well, this is where I lived, my foster parents should still live here."

"How do you know that they will take care of our egg?"

"Well they took care of me, so I don't see why they wouldn't." said Spyro "Before we go into the Swamp, I need you to place our egg in-between my wings and on my back.

"Why?" asked Cynder.

"Because." he simply stated. "Swamp is too dense for us to fly through, and it's too dangerous to carry it in our paws".

Cynder then walked over to Spyro and put their egg on his back. Spyro then held onto the egg as best as he could with the back side of his wings. The two dragons then proceeded to walk into the swamp. As soon as they entered the swamp, Cynder felt sick from the smell of the place. It was beyond anything she had ever smelt in her life. She looked over to Spyro to see how he was doing in the smell. To her surprise Spyro seemed unfazed by the stench.

"_He must have gotten us to it_." thought Cynder.

As they walked deeper and deeper into the swamp Cynder started to shake with fear. She was always terrified of swamps, even when she was corrupted. If any dragon, cheetah, or mole would ever run into a swamp, she would have a group of apes go in and find them. What scared her the most about the place was that no matter where you were, whether it be inside or near by the Swamp, it always felt like she was being watched.

Spyro noticed the state Cynder was in and asked, "First time in a Swamp?"

"Yeah. I always had this phobia of Swamps. I always feel like I'm being...watched." said Cynder.

"Yeah, I know how you feel, but as long as you stay out of their territory _THEY_ won't attack you" said Spyro

"W-what are you talking about, w-when you mention THEY?" asked Cynder as her heart rate started to rise.

"I mean the Merfolk that live in the waters, they are very protective to there territory, and don't like strangers near it, so they have hundreds of them spread though out the place watching to see if anyone gets to close to there territory. In fact there is one over there." said Spyro as he pointed to a pale looking creature that had white eye's and long black hair, as it had half of its head sticking out of the water.

Cynder thought her heart was about to burst at the rate it was beating as she started to shake with fear.

"Don't worry about them." said Spyro. "They have extremely sensitive eyes, so all you have to do is create some form of light, watch". Spyro then blow out a tiny fire towards the Merfolk. The flame came no were near it but the Merfolk covered its eyes from the light with its webbed hands before diving back under water.

This calmed down Cynder a little bit, but a question has been pestering Cynder ever since they entered the Swamp and now was a good time to ask it. "Spyro, what other dangers live in this Swamp"?

"Well the only dangers for you and me are the Merfolk, the poisonous snakes, and the quick sand. Everything else is dangerous only to dragonflies" said Spyro.

The two of them stayed quiet for several minutes until Spyro said "Hey Cynder do you see those lights up ahead"?

"Yeah."

"Well that is the town I grow up in, and also our destination." As they neared the village, Cynder saw that it had a wall with a gate in it surrounding it that came up to a fully grown dragon's chest. She also saw a sign that said "Welcome to DragonflyVillage".

When they reached the gate two dragonflies wearing leafs and carried a sharpened twig approached them. "State your business here…oh sorry Spyro. I didn't know it was you." said one of the guards.

"What brings you back here?" asked the other.

"Hello there Hawker, hello Chaser. We are here to see my parents." said Spyro.

"Ok then, just be careful were you step." said Hawker

"Yeah, we don't won't you or your friend to be stepping on any homes." said Chaser.

"We will be careful." said Spyro as he and Cynder walked though the gate.

When they entered the town Cynder started to look around, and saw that the homes were made from mud, large twigs, and rocks. She also noticed that the streets were lined with glowing stones that lit up the town. That is when a question popped into her head. "Spyro why are there guards her, and why are they wearing leafs?" asked Cynder.

"There are guards here because birds will swoop down and try to eat one of the dragonflies, or a frog might come by and try to find a meal. As for why they wear leafs, is because they rub rotten fruits on them so that predators don't eat them.".

"Okay...strange, but functional." said Cynder.

After a few minutes of walking, they are confronted by a dragonfly. "My is that you Spyro? You have grown so much since the last time I saw you." said an old white dragonfly.

"Oh hey there Willow." said Spyro

"How many times do I have to tell you to call me Mr. Wisp! I would of thought that being gone for several years would teach you to respect your elders, but I guess not." said Mr. Wisp.

Rolling his eyes, Spyro said, "Cynder this is Mr. Wisp, he is the town's searcher, or at least was until he failed at his job".

"Hey those were not my fault they didn't listen to my warnings." said Mr. Wisp.

"What's a searcher?" asked Cynder.

"Every now and then some animal will walk into the Swamp and get lost in here which is a very bad thing. A searcher, is some one who would leave the village and look for anyone who is lost and help them find there way out." said Mr. Wisp.

"And tell me what was your success rate?" asked Spyro.

Mr. Wisp mumbled a few words but Spyro and Cynder didn't hear him.

"What was that, we didn't hear you?" said Spyro.

"Three out of thirty-five!" he shouted, "Now if you two are done pestering me, I have to be somewhere." Said the old white dragonfly, flying past them.

"Goodbye Willow!" shouted Spyro.

Spyro and Cynder then continued their walk through town, until they came to a regular dragonfly home with a much larger house that was able to fit a young dragon in next to it. Spyro then approached the dragonfly home.

"Hello, is anybody home?" asked Spyro.

No more then a seconded after Spyro said that did a pink dragon fly burst out the front door and flew towards Spyro and hugged his snout. The pink dragonfly then said, "I'm so happy that you came back."

With a small chuckle Spyro said, "It's good to see you too mom." A blue and yellow dragonfly then came rushing from the inside of the house.

"Dear stop smothering him." said the blue dragonfly. "He is not a child any more."

The pink dragonfly then let go of Spyro's snout, turned to face the blue dragonfly, and said, "Do you have to ruin all of my fun?" The blue dragonfly couldn't help but roll his eyes.

Chuckling a bit more Spyro said "Cynder, this is Flash and Nina. Mom, Dad this is Cynder."

"So this is Cynder." Flash says, who started flying around her. "Sparx told us a lot about you.".

"Um, like what?" asked Cynder.

"He said that you are very kind, generous, and a very beautiful dragoness?" said Nina, clearly lying through her teeth.

"Ahh, that's so sweet…now what did he actually say." said Cynder who was now eyeing the yellow dragonfly.

With a look of defeat on her face Nina said "He told us you were a horrible monster, but over time you became quite nice."

"That sounds more like Sparx," said Spyro. "What else did he tell you"?

"I told them every thing that happened on our adventure, from when we left to when I got back home." said Sparx.

"Speaking of home, what brings you and your friend here?" asked Flash.

"Well you see we gotten ourselves into some trouble and we need some help. So we were hoping you could help us." said Spyro.

"You couldn't even last a few weeks before getting into more trouble, could you Spyro?" asked Sparx.

"This is a little different Sparx." said Cynder in a rather sad tone.

"Why what happened?" asked Flash with concern.

"Well long story short, we are being hunted by the guardian's and most if not all of the dragon race."

"That is awful," said Nina. "Well you can certainly stay here and hide."

"And put all of you at risk, I don't think so, but there is someone we were hoping you could take care of in our absence." said Spyro. "Cynder could you grab It." said Spyro while he pointed at the egg.

After Cynder put the egg on the ground Flash said "Now were did you find this little guy"?

"Well um, you see…" said Spyro nervously.

"Wait wait wait," said Sparx. "Are you guys telling me that that's…and that you…and you are…" he couldn't finish speaking before fainting.

"You don't have to be so dramatic about It." said Cynder as her face started to turn a lighter shade of black.

"Well congratulations." said Flash.

"No you can't have a child already, it's too soon." said Nina surprising every one.

"Why do you say that honey?" asked Flash confused.

"Because that would mean that we're… we're…" started Nina while trying to hold back tears.

"We're what?" asked Flash.

"OLD!" shouted Nina bursting into tears, and ran back inside.

Flash let out a sigh before saying "I'm sorry for what Nina did, she has this phobia of being old or something like that." Spyro and Cynder couldn't help but laugh at that.

"Anyway, why can't you guys take the egg with you? From what Sparx has told me you two seem to be very strong." said Flash.

"We tried to do that before, and we were with a friend, but the ones who are hunting us found us. They easily out numbered us and we could only take down half of them before they captured our egg and Cynder. Our friend was able to free our egg and Cynder, but she told us to run away while she held them off. That was the last time we saw her. We don't know if she is ok or not." said Spyro.

"Well I'm terribly sorry to hear about your friend, and I do wish her the best of luck. I'm sure once Nina calms down she would gladly look over our egg." said Flash.

"Thanks dad."

"Well how about you two love birds stay a while, you can put your egg over there in Spyro's old home." said Flash as he pointed to the larger building next to their house. "I am going to bring Sparx inside and see if I can calm down Nina.

Over the next few hours after Nina calmed down, and Sparx woke up, the five of them started to talk about what it was like in the swamp. Then after they finished dinner they started to talk about what it was like raising Spyro, and what he was like when he thought he was a dragonfly.

After a few good laughs about back then, Flash showed Spyro and Cynder outside for them to sleep next to their egg. They lied down on their backs and their heads to the stars and there was a long pause before anyone spoke.

"Spyro?" asked Cynder

"Yes?" he replied.

"I don't know if we can do this?" tears starting to fall from her eyes. "All of Warfang is after us, I...I don't know if I can handle it."

"Hey, it's alright." Spyro said, using his paw to wipe the tears from her eyes. He then planted a light kiss on her snout. "We'll get through this, together." A warm smile spread across Cynder's face. "Better?".

"You didn't have to do what you just did." Said Cynder, blushing a little.

"I know, I needed to." Spyro says with a slight grin. The night wore on for the two dragons with Cynder cuddled next to Spyro, the two holding each others paws, and their one free paw both wrapped around their egg.

* * *

The next morning after everyone ate breakfast, Flash and Nina started to talk about what Spyro and Cynder were planning to do.

"So Spyro and Cynder, what do you to plan on doing once you leave?" asked Nina.

"We don't know where we are going to go, but I think it would be best if we were to hide somewhere that is large and heavily fortified." said Spyro.

"How about we go to the Concurrent Skies?" suggested Cynder.

"Where's that?" Sparx asked. Ignoring Sparx's question, he asked Cynder.

"Are you sure, that place is bound to bring back bad memories?" said Spyro.

"Of what?" Asked Sparx, looking for an answer.

"Sparx, remember how we had to fight Cynder back then in her adult form?"

"Yeah, and..."

"And do you know how she transformed into her adult form without even maturing to that adult age?"

"No. Could you cut to the chase and tell me what that place has to do with..."

"IT'S!" Spyro started but then realized he yelled. He stopped to look at Cynder who looked perfectly fine, no crying, no tears, just calm. He took a deep breath, controlled his voice, and thought about picking the right words. "It's where her egg was taken before she hatched. She was tormented, corrupted, almost to death. She was forced to take orders from the Dark Master, didn't even have a chance to defend herself." He glanced at Cynder, who still looked calm and gave him a smirk, then back at Sparx. "I just wanted her to feel safe there."

"I will be fine, but thank you for thinking about me." Cynder then pulled Spyro into a passionate hug, causing Flash and Nina to smile at the two lovers, while Sparx felt like throwing up.

"Well you two should probably get going before it gets to late in the afternoon." said Nina, "And don't worry about your egg, we'll take good care of it."

"One more thing before we leave," started Cynder. "Me and Spyro talked about it last night and we decided that we don't want our child to know who its real parents are."

"Why is that?" asked Sparx.

"Because we know that eventual our child will go to Warfang, and if he or she were to tell someone who his or her parents are then there is a chance that the guardian's will found out and use our child as bait." said Spyro.

"Then what do you want us to tell them if he or she were to start asking whose there real parents?" asked Flash.

"Tell them that we died, and you found our egg." said Spyro.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" asked Nina.

"No, we don't want to do this, but we have no other choice other then to surrender." said Cynder.

"Okay, if you say so. We wish you the best of luck." said Nina.

And with that Spyro and Cynder took of towards the Concurrent Skies.

**VERY IMPORTANT. So I need everyone's help with the next chapter. In the next chapter I need something bad to happen to either Spyro or Cynder. I wont tell you the reason behind this, but do know that if know one can help me with this then the next chapter will contain a torture scene. Do know that if I like your idea and decide to use it then I will give you full credit. Also do know that there is a chance that we wont use your idea. **

**So what did you guys think of the chapter. Please tell me in the review. Also I will be starting school some what soon so I don't know when the next chapter will be posted, but I will post it as soon as possible.**


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